English Matrimonials

I have no idea what this name means. English matrimonials sounds more like I am talking about the Royal Wedding than a raspberry oat bar.  But good news: I am talking about raspberry oat bars.  Things have weird names sometimes, but don't let them scare you off.  Let's call these raspberry oat bars instead.

The name came handwritten on a recipe card; Nick got it from his friend's mom.  Apparently she makes them for her son to bring up every year when they go on a vacation to Silver Lake, NH, and the boys always scarf them down.  There is something I love about handwritten recipes; so much is assumed, or implied, and it makes me feel like a real chef when I can read between the lines and figure things out.  I also think you can really trust handwritten recipes.  If someone is taking the time to write a recipe down, you know it's good.

Nick used the BYOI rule for these and went shopping for the ingredients.  He luckily realized that he needed to read the whole recipe to find the full ingredients list, because as you can see, the top layer just says "same mixture as bottom layer" written at the bottom of the card.  I will rewrite it a little more clearly!  But anyway, he bought all the ingredients and I whipped these up for him.  I really mean whipped them up, too - they are so fast and easy.  He was thrilled, and so was my family.  These are definitely a great classic.  This is my last dessert post before Thanksgiving; could this be what you bring to the table?

Recipe:

English matrimonials
from Mike's mom

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
3 sticks butter, melted
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
12 ounces raspberry jam (seedless recommended)

Instructions:

1) Grease a 9 x 13 pan and preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2) Mix together flour, brown sugar, butter, and oats.  Stir well and spread half of the mixture into pan, pressing down firmly.

3) Spread layer of jam generously over the top.

4) Crumble remaining half of flour mixture over top of the jam to cover.  Press down lightly.  Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until golden.