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Today I’m grateful for: my daughter, a grubby little two-year-old who makes me smile about as often as she pees on the kitchen floor (which is a lot).
She’s spunky and fun, and I’m so grateful for that personality. I love that she’s a master of preschool arts and crafts. She’s the only one of her friends who would rather jump in the stream than cautiously dip her feet in it.
I love that she’s finally starting to speak… even if she’s making up her own language most of the time. And I really love that when I put her in time out, she rubs her hands together (baby sign) and says “sorry, nice” over and over again. It means “Sorry, I’ll be nice now.”
I can’t believe how blessed I am. I receive hundreds of hugs and kisses every single day for no apparent reason. Sometimes, when lunch is ready and I call her to the table, she’ll shout “hooray! horray! lunch!!” and pump her fists in the air. And then, when she sees I’ve included apple sauce, she grins up at me like I’m the super-lunch-woman who has done something completely amazing.
I’m so lucky.
Even better than all that, my daughter has a loving father who is happily married to her mother. She has involved grandparents, amazing aunts and uncles. Did I mention a roof over her head, food in her belly, and enough clothes to last us into the teenage years? She is truly blessed, and that is one of my greatest blessings!
Another Emma-related thing I’m grateful for? That she doesn’t like peppermint. Which means I can have this entire peppermint crumble bars recipe to myself. My husband is a different story. But I’ll divide the batch into 2 instead of 3 any day!
I had these bars (made with chocolate instead of peppermint– which I’ll be getting to one of these days) at my brother’s wedding in April. And I have been dying for the recipe for months now. So when we visited his in-laws during our recent Utah trip, I jumped at the chance to learn to make them myself! Peppermint Crumble Bars are fabulous and I highly recommend adding them to your Christmas Cookie line up this year!
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups white chocolate peppermint candy (like Andes peppermint bits)
- 1 - 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º.
- Use a pastry cutter or a fork to cut the butter, sugar, and flour together until crumbly.
- Press a little more than half of the crumble mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 lined baking dish.
- In a medium saucepan over low heat, mix 1 cup of the white chocolate peppermint candy and the sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Pour over the crumb crust in the dish.
- Sprinkle the remaining crumble and white chocolate peppermint candy evenly over top.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until edges begin to just barely brown.
- Let cool completely before cutting into bars.
*If you can’t find white chocolate peppermint candy, you can substitute white chocolate (cup for cup) and crushed up peppermint candy (as much or as little as you’d like).
*The ingredients called for in the crumble portion of the recipe are an approximation. You can make more crumble topping depending on your taste! I like a thicker crust and more crumble on top, so I use 3 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups butter, and 3/4 cup sugar for mine. Expect a longer baking time if you make this adjustment.
*The ingredients for the filling can also be adjusted if you’d like to have a little more filling. I’ve eaten it both according to these direction and when the filling has been doubled. They’re both good– just know that if you double the filling, it’s gooey (which is delicious, just might not package as neatly).
My friend Dorothy over at Crazy For Crust is the queen of crumble! Check out this Apple Crumble Pie that inspired her blog!
