Rasberry Shortbread Bars

Everyone loves these raspberry bars, they conduct maintain an ultra-buttery shortbread crust topped alongside cooked raspberries as well as a streusel topping. They are really sweet, buttery, tender AND they cut nicely...perfect for gift giving.

Raspberries grow good inward Alaska, thus if you lot are lucky plenty to conduct maintain closed to inward the freezer, this is a wonderful recipe for them; I'm non thus lucky, thus I used a 12 ounce pocketbook of frozen raspberries.

NOTE: You tin skip this stair if you lot desire to occupation raspberry (or ANY flavor) jam.

Put the berries (no demand to thaw) in a heavy saucepan alongside 1/4 loving cup of H2O as well as 1 loving cup of white sugar. Bring to a boil over high heat, as well as then cut down the estrus to medium high and simmer the berries until thick (I plow mine downwards to a medium depression estrus for a gentle boil as well as ready them for most xv minutes, stirring 1 time inward a while). Set aside to cool (they volition thicken fifty-fifty to a greater extent than as they cool).

SHORTBREAD CRUST

21 tablespoons of butter, melted as well as cooled to room temp.

This seems similar a lot of butter, simply it makes an 

upper AND lower crust

3/4 loving cup of white sugar

2 large egg yolks

3 cups + iii tablespoons all occupation flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix everything inward a stand upward mixer: it volition brand a really rigid dough. Remove TWO CUPS of this dough as well as pat it evenly into a parchment (or foil) lined nine x xiii pan. Chill inward the fridge for xxx minutes (or freezer for 10 minutes). Remove as well as prick the dough alongside a fork.

Bake the nine x xiii chilled pan of dough, on the middle rack of your oven, for twenty minutes at 325°. After twenty minutes, the dough volition even thus locomote really pale inward color as well as volition non conduct maintain whatever golden color on the edges. Remove it from the oven as well as spread the cooled raspberry filling (or jam) evenly over it.

To the reserved shortbread dough(that you lot laid aside), add together 1/4 loving cup of granulated saccharide as well as 1/2 loving cup of chopped pecans. Use a fork to intermission upward the dough into crumbs.

Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the raspberry layer as well as press e'er thus lightly. Bake on the TOP rack of a 350° oven for 25 minutes (my electrical oven takes 32 minutes). The topping should locomote a golden color (watch the crumbles towards the destination of the baking fourth dimension thus they don't teach dark). 

Cool baked bars (in the pan) on a wire rack for at to the lowest degree an hr or until completely firm. When the bottom of the pan is completely cool to the touch, elevator the bars out of the pan past times pulling on the flap ends of the foil. Cut into 2" bars. These volition dice along at room temperature for a week.

 NOTE: The butter measuring of 21 tablespoons is non a typing error.

NOTE: Line  your 9" x 13" baking pan with parchment (or foil) as well as teach out the ends of the foil a fiddling long, thus you lot tin occupation them equally handles to elevator the cooled bars out of the pan. You don't conduct maintain to grease the bottom of the pan because there's thus much butter inward the shortbread, simply DO spray the sides of the pan/foil alongside cooking spray thus the jam doesn't stick to the sides.

NOTE: Pay attending to baking temperatures. The get-go crust pre-bake is on the middle rack at 325°. The in conclusion bake is on the TOP rack at 350° so that the bottom of the crust doesn't teach besides dark.

NOTE: You tin occupation whatever flavour jam you lot like.