Raspberry Almond Bars

Let it never be said I don’t make anything healthy! This has fruit in it! Ok, it has raspberry preserves, but baby steps, you know?

It also has almonds in it, and they’re supposed to be good for you. AND coconut, which is another fruit, right? And egg whites – no yolk! (Ok, that makes me laugh.)

So basically, you’re looking at the ingredients of a very healthy breakfast! But I promise these don’t taste healthy. They, you know, taste good.

These are also sort of an “adult” cookie. They’re not full of chocolate or tons of sugar….and I just lost 75% of you there…but they have a nice sweetness to them and are sort of addictive in a totally safe non-Real-Housewives kind of way.

Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

· ¾ cup butter, softened to room temperature

· ¾ cup powdered sugar

· ½ t vanilla

· 1 ½ cups flour

· ¾ cup raspberry preserves

· 3 egg whites

· 6 T sugar

· ½ cup shredded coconut

· 1 cup sliced almonds

Directions

Mix the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla with a hand mixer until they’re super smooth and fluffy. Add the flour, and mix until that’s fully blended.

Pour into a 13” x 9” baking pan that you have buttered and floured and press into the bottom with your fingers. Which, of course, you have already washed, right?

RIGHT?

Good. Bake the whole thing at 350 or 18 – 22 minutes, until it’s just a little bit brown.

Take it out of the oven and spread the preserves over this base. Set aside.

In a bowl, beat the three egg whites until you can make light peaks with them. Then, add the sugar and beat that until you can form stiff peaks. Heh, heh – I said “stiff”.

Anyway, fold in the coconut and half of the sliced almonds. Take that mixture and spread it over the preserves, and then sprinkle the other half of the almonds on top of that.