Strawberries & Cream Bars

Well... Today has been, I guess, interesting. That's probably the simplest way to put it.  So instead of getting the story of my time in London, you're getting a recipe for these sweet treats. Naturally, I found these bars on Pinterest. They make for a great summertime dessert! They're pretty delicious. Four layers of sweet goodness. They don't last long. 

The recipe came from Lil' Luna. It's a sugar cookie base topped with a cream cheese & Velata white chocolate mixture, a strawberry mixture, and whipped topping. I think it'd be fun to try it with a dark chocolatey-brownie base sometime...yum. 

Strawberries & Cream Bars

Ingredients for the sugar cookie layer:

1/3 cup shortening

1/3 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Ingredients for the cream layer:

8 oz cream cheese, softened 

6 oz bag Velata premium white chocolate, melted

Ingredients for the strawberry layer:

1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

2 TBSP cornstarch 

8 oz whipped topping 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.
• Cream together the shortening, butter, and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla, and almond until well mixed.
• Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to the creamed mixture until well blended. 
• Spread into the bottom of your prepared pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Let cool.
• Melt the white chocolate as directed on the bag. Mix with cream cheese until well blended. Spread over cooled cookie layer and pop it in the fridge.
• In a small sauce pan, mix together sugar and cornstarch. Add chopped strawberries and water. Heat on medium-high until it comes to a boil. Once it's boiling, remove from heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. Pour over cream cheese/white chocolate layer and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. 
• Top with your whipped topping of choice. I didn't use the whole tub. Just enough to make it look good. Keep it in the fridge until ready to serve.

Enjoy!