If you're looking for a quick and easy dessert for your summer barbeques and picnics that uses simple ingredients from your pantry, travels well and can  be made in advance and left out at room temperature for a couple of days, look no further than these sweet white chocolate jam blondies. 

These sweet patriotic red, white and blue jam blondie bars come together quickly using basic ingredients from your pantry.

And they're everything a summer dessert should be. Ooey-gooey, sticky and sweet. And jam-packed with berry flavor (see what I did there?)

If you're a baker, I would guess you keep your pantry stocked with all the baking essentials and that's all you need to bake up a pan of these yummy bars. Don't have any white chocolate chips, use semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips instead.

Or chop up a chocolate bar if you don't have chips.

If you like nuts, you can add some nuts to the recipe. Or sub in nuts for the chips, although then you won't have the red, white and blue thing really going on!

Anyway, I used Stonewall Kitchen strawberry and bluebery jam for my bars in keeping with a patriotic theme, but you can sub in any type of fruit preserve or jam you like. 

I really love that the basic recipe is super easy and so versatile depending on what you have on hand.

(scroll down for the printable recipe)

White Chocolate Jam Blondie Bars

Preheat the oven to 375 ° F.  

Grease an 8-inch square cake pan with cooking spray or use the butter wrapper. Line the pan with parchment, leaving two wings one either side of the pan that hang over the edge.

Whisk the egg in a small bowl. In a separate small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. 

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then pour into a medium mixing bowl with the sugar and vanilla. Whisk until combined, then whisk in the egg. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, gradually fold in the flour mixture until just combined - don't over mix it. Then stir in the chocolate chips.

Spread half of the batter in the prepared pan. Using a spoon, dot the batter with the two flavors of jam, then carefully spread the remaining batter over the top, making sure to spread it to the edges of the pan. (It's okay if some of the jam peeks out from underneath.) 

Sprinkle the top of the batter with a few additional chocolate chips.

Bake the bars for 25 to 30 minutes or until light golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool the pan on a wire rack to room temperature, then use the parchment paper to lift the bars out of the pan. Slice into bars roughly 1" x 4". 

Store leftovers tightly covered at room temperature for 3-4 days.