Musings on Life & Cooking

After the June round-up of Cookie Carnival, our illustrious leader Kate of The Clean Plate Club, asked if we’d like to expand our cookie baking repertoire’s to extend to bar cookies, as well. I must not have been the only participant who voted yes, because this month we’ve got bar cookies on the menu!

I bought slivered blanched almonds and toasted them myself before giving them a good whiz in the food processor to grind them, but ended up toasting and grinding two batches of almonds because I over-baked my first of batch shortbread. My oven’s new thermostat has definitely kicked up the power a notch! Luckily the shortbread is a quick and easy recipe; you throw it all in the food processor and then press it into the pan, love it!

I a big fan of fruit curds, but have until now only made lemon curd, so I was excited to give a berry curd a go. Everything was going perfect and then I remembered that I was halving the recipe, I don’t have 9x13x2 inch cake pan and was making it in my 8x8x2 inch cake pan, but hadn’t measured the blackberry juice! At that point I was already cooking the curd and was at the stage where you should be adding the butter. I figured that I’d used ± ¾ cup of blackberry juice, so I took the curd off the heat, whisked together more eggs and sugar and slowly poured the hot curd over the mixture, add the lemon juice and returned it to the stove. I cooked it for another 2 minutes and then added the butter, and cooked until it was done.

I was pretty chuffed about being able to save my curd, but in hindsight I wished that I’d tasted the curd before adding more sugar. My blackberries were quite sweet and I found the curd too sweet for my taste, once the cookies bars were completely baked. I was pretty sugar that the confectioner’s sugar would eventually dissolve into the blackberry curd, so I topped the cookie bars with some toasted slivered almonds and then dusted them in powdered sugar, which I thought snazzed them up a bit.

Would I make them again? Maybe. I thought the toasted almond shortbread was the best part to be honest, mostly because I thought the curd was overly sweet. Maybe the fact that I started with a half recipe of curd and then doubled it during the cooking process had something to do with it? Whatever the case, I prefer my preserves and jams without sugar added, because I feel that too much sugar takes away from the natural sweetness of the fruit itself. If I was to make this recipe again, I’d want to give the curd recipe a couple of trial runs first, before using it again in this recipe.

Blackberry Almond Squares

Source: Williams-Sonoma

For the shortbread:

12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks/170g) chilled unsalted butter,

cut into 1-inch pieces

2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (48) ground toasted almonds

1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

For the blackberry curd:

2 pints blackberries

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

4 Tbs. (1/2 stick/57g) unsalted butter,

at room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat an oven to 350°F/177°C. Lightly butter a 9-by-13-by-2-inch cake pan.

To make the shortbread, in the bowl of a food processor, combine the butter, flour, almonds, granulated sugar and salt and process until small lumps form. Sprinkle the mixture into the prepared pan and press evenly into the bottom. Bake until the shortbread is golden, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

Meanwhile, make the blackberry curd: In a food processor or blender, puree the blackberries until smooth. Pass the puree through a chinois set over a bowl, using a pestle to press on the solids and extract as much juice as possible; discard the solids. You should have about 3/4 cup juice.

In the top pan of a double boiler or in a nonreactive saucepan, whisk together the eggs and granulated sugar until blended. Then whisk in the blackberry juice, salt and lemon juice. Set the top pan over but not touching simmering water in the bottom pan, or set the saucepan over medium-low heat. (If using a saucepan, take care not to heat the mixture too quickly.) Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula or spoon, until the mixture is warmed through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Begin adding the butter a little at a time, stirring each addition until blended before adding more. Continue cooking, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan, until a finger drawn across the back of the spatula leaves a path, 8 to 10 minutes more. Immediately remove the pan from the heat. Pass the curd through the chinois set over a bowl and let stand for 10 minutes. Whisk to blend, then pour the curd over the shortbread, spreading it evenly to the edges.

Bake until the curd is set, about 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Cut into individual bars, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Dust the bars with confectioners’ sugar before serving. --- Makes 20 bars

Helpful tip:

One pint fresh blackberries equals 1 1/2 to 2 cups blackberries (depending on size).

These were the very first baked good that I made after my recent oven maintenance and it felt good to be back in the baking game! The homely combination of almond shortbread and blackberry curd in this bar cookie really reminded me of the type of homemade treat that you’d expect to have as an after school snack; and although I wasn’t over the moon about this particular cookie, I’m thrilled as ever to take part in this growing group of cookie bakers, and I’m looking forward to next month’s recipe!

This is my submission for the July installment of Cookie Carnival, a wonderful monthly event for the Cookie Monster in all of us, hosted by Kate over at The Clean Plate Club. Be sure to click over and read Kate’s write up on this month’s participants!

Previously by Mevrouw Cupcake for Cookie Carnival:

Snickerdoodles
Vanilla Thins
Raspberry Swirl Cookies