Old-Timey Tropical Treats

For Christmas this past year, Eric’s grandmother (Grannie) gave me a really neat gift that I put in a drawer and sort of forgot about. Until now.  I sure am glad I found it! I can’t wait to dive into this bad boy more.

It’s an original 1963 Betty Crocker “Cooky Book” cookbook. It’s so cute! It has a ton of old-fashioned cookie recipes in it and all sorts of tips and tricks for baking the very best for your family. Some of the recipes are a little TOO old-fashioned for the 21st century newlywed (in my humble opinion) but I just can’t resist this book!

One recipe that jumped out at me right away was for Pineapple Bars. Looked easy, sounded yummy…what the heck…I’ll give it a try!

I love pineapple. What I love even more is the combo of pineapple and strawberry. And since I had some fresh strawberries just begging to be used, I changed the recipe up a bit and made a pineapple/strawberry filling. My changes are below in italics. The result is an old-timey tropical treat! Yummy!

PINEAPPLE-STRAWBERRY BARS (Recipe Source: Betty Crocker’s 1963 “Cooky Book” Cookbook)

• Pineapple-Strawberry Filling (below)
• 3/4 cup shortening (I used butter)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 3/4 cups of flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats

Directions

1. Prepare filling, let cool. Preheat oven 400 degrees
2. Mix shortening and sugar thoroughly. (I used my mixer, of course!)
3. Stir in flour, soda and salt together; blend in. Mix in rolled oats.
4. Press and flatten half of the mixture over bottom of greased 13×9 inch pan. Spread with cooled filling. Top with remaining crumb mixture, patting lightly.
5. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned. While warm, cut into bars and remove from pan.

Pineapple-Strawberry Filling

• 1/2 cup canned crushed pineapple with juice
• 1/2 cup chunky strawberry puree (I just threw some strawberries in the food processor and pulsed a few times until I had a 1/2 cup of liquid with some chunks of fruit left)
• 1 cup of sugar (this seemed outrageously high to me, I cut it back to 1/2 cup and I’m glad I did!)
• 2 1/2 tbsp. corn starch
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 cup of water

Combine all ingrediants in a saucepan, cooking and stirring until thickened. Let cool.

(If doing just pineapple, up the amount of canned pineapple to 1 cup)

Enjoy!

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