I found this recipe a couple of months ago in a Better Homes & Garden magazine and had it sitting out on my counter for weeks until I had a good excuse to try it!  This recipe is somewhere in between regular strawberry shortcake and fruit pizza, both of which are favorites of mine!  I have to admit that my bars didn’t come out quite as perfect looking as the ones pictured in the magazine, but they were still delicious and were devoured quite quickly!

Strawberry Shortcake Bars

Strawberry Sauce

4 cups strawberries, sliced

3/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 Tbsp. butter, sliced in small pieces

Puree the strawberries until smooth.  In a medium saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch and then stir in the pureed strawberries.  Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened.  Cook and stir 2 minutes more.  Stir in lemon juice and butter and then remove from heat.  Transfer to a bowl and chill for at least 2 hours before using.

Cookie Layers

2/3 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

4 cups all-purpose flour

Beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds.  Add the sugar, baking powder and salt.  Beat until combined and then beat in the eggs and vanilla until well mixed.  Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer and then stir any remaining flour in by hand.  Divide the dough into fourths.

Grease a 9X9 inch baking pan.  Line with parchment paper and pat in a quarter of the dough until it is evenly spread across the bottom.  Bake 10-12 minutes at 375.  Cool in pan for a few minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.  Once pan is cool, make two more identical layers.  For the fourth layer, make sure that your parchment paper extends up on two sides of the pan so that you easily remove the bars once they are all assembled.  Don’t remove the fourth layer from the pan once it is baked.  

Once the cookie layers are cooled, you can assemble all of the layers.  Spoon half of the strawberry sauce over the baked cookie layer that is still in the pan.  Add another cookie layer and then the whipped cream (see recipe below), along with a cup of sliced strawberries.  Top with the remaining strawberry sauce and then the final cookie layer.  Gently press the layers down, cover and chill overnight.  

Sweetened Whipped Cream

3/4 cup whipping cream

1 Tbsp. sugar

In a chilled mixing bowl, beat cream and sugar together until soft peaks form.  You can also just use Cool Whip!  

Enjoy!