Food You Can Eat: Easy Time Holiday Squares

24/9/21 butcherbakertoiletrymaker 11
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...in September

First things first:  I have no idea why these are called Easy Time Holiday Squares, instead of just Holiday Squares, or even Cherry Filled Holiday Squares.  Easy Time Holiday Squares is a stupid name, but that’s what the recipe is called, so that’s what it’s going to be here.

A caveat before we get started:  This one actually baked for the time specified.  This makes it doubly stupid that something which works the way it’s supposed to is something to look out for, but here we are.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 ½ Cups Sugar

1 Cup Butter, softened

4 Eggs

2 Cups Flour, sifted

1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

21 oz. Cherry Pie Filling

½ Cup Powdered Sugar

Cream butter while adding sugar in a steady stream.  Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the bowl and beat again.

This is after the first scraping.

Stir in flour and lemon juice.  Scrape down the bowl, again, and stir again until combined.

Is it tedious to keep scraping the bowl? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes.

Pour batter into a well-greased 15” x 10” x 1” pan.  Mark off 20 squares.  Place one heaping tablespoon of cherry pie filling in the center of each square.

Keeping the cherry pie filling in a proper shape was a giant pain in the ass.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 25 minutes. 

I can’t believe it was ready when the recipe said it would be. Someone should call the press.

While still warm, sift powdered sugar over the top. 

Wait for it…
This is why you sift the sugar while everything is still warm.

Cut when cooled completely.  Serve with your favorite glass of holiday cheer.

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About butcherbakertoiletrymaker 603 Articles
When you can walk its length, and leave no trace, you will have learned.

11 Comments

  1. What do you with all the baked goods? Do you freeze some? I am assuming that Mrs. B doesn’t often indulge? These look tasty, too, your Grandmother was a very good baker.

    • In fact, Mrs. Butcher doesn’t eat any of these things, so it’s all on me.  Periodically, I might share some with a neighbor here and there, but probably 90% of everything I’ve baked so far has been consumed by me.  Would you believe me if I told you I’ve lost 12 pounds since February?  Neither does Mrs. Butcher, but the scale at my doctor’s office doesn’t lie.

  3. If you are running a surfeit of baked goods maybe you could barter the extra with your neighbors.

     

    When I first moved into this apartment I used to do a lot of baking and would make things like this. My fallback though was crumbles, which I made at least once every weekend. I don’t seem to have that recipe anymore, but it was insanely easy. You make a dough using Bisquick, an egg, butter, and something else, maybe a little water. You use 2/3 of the dough to make a bottom crust in an 8X8 pan, then pour in the can of pie filling, then dot the remaining 1/3 dough on the top. This handily disguises the fact that you cannot make a pie and the chaotic top is a feature, not a bug.

    Anyway, I was making far too many of these, so I would give portions to our door staff. One of them was a great cinephile and in return for my crumbles would loan me bootleg DVDs of movies, current releases and in a couple of cases copies that hadn’t even been released in theaters yet. We had quite a mutually beneficial system going on until one day she herself was released and I never saw her again.

      • Please. This is in New York. Unlicensed vendors sell them on blankets all over the city. The cops walk through and often will have a good look-see at the merch on sale, but just out of curiosity. I’ve never seen a cop actually buy one but they sure as hell don’t ask for licenses or where the goods might have come from.

    • Do other people do bottom pie crusts on crumbles? My understanding was always that both crumbles and crisps have messy crust-like toppings, to avoid the effort of making a pie crust.

      I used to make a fair amount of both. My crumble was just a topping of flour, brown sugar, and cold butter cut in to stay chunky. My crisp was basically the same but also with oats.

      • That’s what this recipe called for and it’s superior method, I think. It’s probably a Bisquick recipe, now that I think about it. Having the bottom crust makes it a lot easier to get out of the pan and deliver it on a paper plate to your cinephile doorperson.

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