Thursday, February 5, 2009

Beauty is pain...and raspberries!

Wow, these were not easy. But, they tasted....AMAZING!These are Raspberry Shortbread Bars, which I found on recipezaar.com, my bible. Now, once again, I halved this recipe, and made it in an 8x8, which turned out to be a mistake because they were gone in minutes. BUT, I discovered, for people just like me, a feature on RecipeZaar where you adjust the amount the recipe produces, and it changes all the ingredient amounts! No more "oops I put in 4 eggs instead of two"!
Anyway, back to the recipe. If you haven't noticed yet, I love raspberry. I would make all desserts with raspberry if I could. Well, I can, but sometimes variety is good too.
So, I found these, and all the reviews were good, and I wanted to make them asap, but I was a little concern. This recipe entails making the dough, freezing it in two balls, and then grating it into the pan. A little tough, but I figured - what the heck - lets try it out.
Now, this would certainly be a little easier if I had a food processor with me, but I don't. So I made the dough, froze it for about an hour, and set about the grating.
I won't lie to you people, it was tough. It took a while. And the dough started crumbling a little which made it harder. But I succeeded with no scraped knuckles or ruined nails (I hate when that happens) and put it in the oven to bake.
And oh, did I make the right choice. They were light, crumbly, sweet and delicious.
So do I recommend making them? Certainly. Without a food processor? Definitely not.
Make sure you freeze the dough in small enough sections to fit in your processor tube though.
Oh, and here's my biggest secret. I substituted margarine. For the butter. In shortbread. Blasphemous, I know. Don't report me. I was a little nervous, but I honestly can't see how they could be any more delicious.

Tip of the Day: If your jam or preserves are a little too thick to spread, microwave them for a few seconds until they loosen up, but don't overdo it!

Recipe: (from Recipezaar)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup blackberry or raspberry jam

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in egg yolks and beat until well mixed.
Pour in the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
Turn the dough out onto a surface and form into two balls.
Wrap in saran wrap and freeze for two hours or overnight.
(Here is where you would make sure your pieces are food-processor sized).
Grate one of the balls and lightly press into a greased 8 inch square pan.
Spread the jam on top until 1/2 inch from side.
Top with remaining grated dough.
Bake on 350 F for 30 to 40 minutes or until light golden brown.
Cool in pan.

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