Guava Jelly Crumble Bars

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grab an 8×8 casserole dish and line the bottom with parchment paper making sure you leave some paper hanging over the sides of the dish. This helps to remove the bars when they’re done baking.

Place the butter and sugar in a medium bowl and mix with an electric mixer on medium speed until just combined. Next add the vanilla and mix.

In a small bowl, mix the flour and salt and add half of this to the butter mixture. Mix the butter and flour mixture until the flour disappears. Add the rest of the flour to the butter mixture and repeat. It will look crumbly but as long as all the flour is mixed into the sugar mixture, you should be fine.

Form the dough into a ball or press it together. Divide into thirds and grab 2/3 (two pieces) and place it in the 8 x 8 casserole dish. Lightly pat the dough on the bottom and around the sides of the dish. The thickness should be a little more than 1/4 inch.

Grab the Maria cookies (use more than the listed amount if you are using a bigger dish) and crush them into the bowl with the reserved dough. Mix it really well so the majority of the cookies are covered in the dough.

Next get a small bowl and add the guava jelly. Mix it with a spoon to make the jelly spreadable. When the guava jelly has a looser consistency, pour it into your baking dish and spread it all over the dough leaving a small border on the sides.

Break the Maria cookie dough mixture into small bits and spread it on top of the guava jelly, covering most of the surface. Bake the bars for 35 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven.

Cool completely and take the bars out of the dish using the parchment paper you left hanging out. Cut into 9 bars. Sprinkle lightly with confectioners’ sugar.