Strawberry Shortbread Bars

It's July, and tomorrow I am meeting some friends for a late birthday celebration of our friend Lucy, and I wanted to bring a little treat, but I also have to work all day, so wanted something that would travel well and be able to sit in my car all day, which is a big task in July heat in the Midwest! Second reason why I made these bars is because my friend Nina, who will also be at dinner, had left a full jar of strawberry preserves at my house, so here we are. These bars have a shortbread crust that just dissolves in your mouth, gooey strawberry preserves, and a crumble topping because everything should have a crumble topping. This recipe will make a batch of 12 bars, but they are thick little babies, so a little goes a long way. You could maybe even cut them into smaller pieces, but I didn't because I love myself and my friends. Another option that I'm not quite as offended by is putting this in a larger pan so that your shortbread is thinner, thus making this go a bit further, but you'd definitely want more preserves. You probably don't need more crumble topping lol. It's a lot of crumble.
Also, these do have a long bake time AND need to cool, so maybe make them a day before you need them. Just saying.

For the shortbread:
Shortbread is a 1-2-3 ratio. One part sugar, two butter, three flour by weight. It made more sense for me to just do my two ratio of butter first since it's in sticks and then do my measurements off of that.

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp (226 grams)
1/2 c granulated sugar *a heaping half cup* (113 g)
2 3/4 c all-purpose flour (339 g)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom *I know I use it a lot. Come at me*
Zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 350F and put parchment into a square 8x8 inch pan (with some overhang to help you pull these out later) and spray with cooking spray.
2. Put butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment and cream for a few minutes.
3. Add flour, salt, cardamom, and lemon zest, mixing until you get a crumble texture.

4. Press into the prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes. This is just to get the shortbread to set a bit before adding the rest. While that's baking, you can get your crumble topping together.

Before the Bake

For the crumble topping:
This is the crumble topping I use for every pie. I did have a little extra that I didn't put on these bars, but after baking them, I feel like it would have been alright to throw all that shit on there. Also, can we talk about how easy these recipes are? First the shortbread, and now this:

1/2 c butter, unsalted, cold (one stick)
1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c all purpose flour
*I also put another pinch of salt and cinnamon in there*

1. Cut butter into cubes and combine with the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Squish with your hands until butter is the size of peas.

Assembly:
1. After shortbread has done the par-bake, take it out of the oven and spread the whole 13 oz jar of preserves on the shortbread. *just a reminder that your pan is hot, so be careful!*

2. Sprinkle the crumb topping over until it covers. If a little strawberry preserve is poking out, that's okay. She can show a little skin.

3. Return to the oven until golden brown and set. It took me about an hour.

4. Allow to cool COMPLETELY before lifting the parchment out and cutting into squares.

5. Someone please take these on a picnic because they are dying to go.