Fresh Apricot Bars

There's a reason I remembered these oh-so-pretty apricot bars after -- dare I say? -- 30 years: they're that good. There's a reason why they're that good: think butter, think sugar, think something akin to a moist shortbread. Whew. A 50:50 butter:sugar mix I didn't remember.

The apricots have been so lush and juicy this year, I bought them three times before finally hunting up the recipe, a favorite from the year I lived in Finland, though it's not particularly Finnish. My third host mother made these bars with canned apricots so good news, it's a recipe that can be made year-round.

FRESH APRICOT BARS

• 1-1/4 cups (2-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2-1/2 cups flour, fluffed to aerate before measuring
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• Fresh apricots (halved) or canned apricots (well-drained), enough to fill the tray
• Icing sugar

Preheat oven to 400F. With an electric mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue beating until light and creamy. One at a time, add the eggs and beat until batter becomes glossy. Add the extract and incorporate. Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt, add to butter mixture and incorporate fully but do not overbeat. With your fingers, spread evenly in a well-greased jelly roll pan or a baking sheet with sides, even a 9x13. Arrange apricots cut-side down in rows so that when cut, an apricot half sits in the center of each bar. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked clear through and slightly golden on the edges. Let cool slightly and sprinkle with icing sugar. Any leftovers should be covered and refrigerated.

KITCHEN NOTES
I haven't tried this but can imagine chopping fresh or canned apricots (and even moist dried apricots) to mix directly into the batter. The impressive appearance would be lost but smaller bars could be cut.
Shocked by the calorie count? Me too, actually. But mine is one of the very few recipe sites (including the big corporate sites like Epicurious) which provides nutrition information with each and every recipe, even for recipes that rack up calories like crazy. I choose to own up to the nutrition impact -- bad and good -- so there's no hiding from it, no getting fooled into thinking, "How bad can it be?" Some times I fear that readers will abandon my sites because calorie information is included for recipes that are clearly an indulgence. But I hope that regular readers appreciate that here, anyway, they'll get the straight, um, skinny.
Refrigerated, a week later these bars are still fresh, moist and flavorful.