Recipe: Raspberry Jam Shortbread Bars

Image found here

I recently tried to make raspberry oatmeal bars, and that was quite a flop. So I wanted to try again and make this raspberry jam shortbread recipe from the Sweets by Elise blog.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1 large egg, cold
• 2.75 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup raspberry jam

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 325° F. Line an 8-inch pan with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl with mixer, combine cold butter, sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, and egg together until smooth.
3. Slowly add flour to the dough, mixing until butter turns slightly creamy. Batter will be sticky, not crumbly.
4. Transfer 3/4 of the dough into prepared pan, pushing it down with hands to smoothen and spread it. Dough should be pressed firmly into the pan.
5. Spread the raspberry jam over the dough. Crumble the remaining dough over the jam, making sure to evenly disperse it over the filling. Ensure the edges of the pan have enough crumble, as the bars will be difficult to handle without crumble around the sides.
6. Bake for 37-45 minutes or until the crumble on top is golden brown.
7. Allow to cool before glazing/slicing. 

Now for how it actually turned out...

I didn't have any almond extract, so I just used 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract. At no point did my dough look "creamy" or "smooth." It was crumbly the entire time. And my raspberry jam was so liquidy that I didn't even spread it: I poured it over the dough in the pan. So there was no leaving any edges like the recipe suggests; even adding some corn starch to the jam didn't help. And after 40 minutes, I still didn't have a golden brown topping, but I was afraid to overcooked it, so I removed it from the oven even though it was still a little blonde. I didn't bother making the glaze (the full recipe includes the instructions for that); I figure I can always used store-bought icing if I feel like icing these.

While it doesn't look great (actually looks almost identical to my previous recipe), this one tastes much better and the soft texture is divine. It's a little dry, but not nearly like the other one. I also think I might have used oats that could have been stale or too old, so that didn't help with the other recipe, so I didn't have to worry about that with this one. I would try to make these again, but maybe with a higher-quality jam that actually has some substance to it.