salted sugared spiced™: Raspberry Almond Bars

There are days when my bedroom looks worse than any stereotypical teenage bedroom or college dorm room. While it drives me absolutely insane if anyone commits the high crime of leaving a dish in the kitchen sink, I seem to have a high tolerance for allowing a pile of clothes to sit for an extraordinarily long period of time before being put away. An array of shoes and sandals strewn on the floor, clothes piled on both the chairs and ottoman, earrings and bracelets scattered on the dresser, and purses hanging from the door knob would cause any cleaning lady to quit (maybe this is why I don't have one because I would end up being the Murphy Brown of the cleaning service employers). As much as I love for the bedroom to always be a calm, peaceful sanctuary with a boutique hotel feel to it, I can create quite a mess. Especially in the days leading up and returning from a trip. Having returned from a great, long weekend trip to Dallas and heading out for a trip to the east coast at week's end, it seems almost pointless to bring any order to all of this chaos this week. It is no surprise that given the choice between baking and cleaning the bedroom, I would choose baking without any hesitation. Even if baking means spending hours on my feet and having to clean up the kitchen.

Before leaving last week I made these Raspberry Almond Bars. I brought most of them to my running group but saved a couple of them to have when returning home. Knowing there were a couple of bars were chilling in the refrigerator lessened the angst of a return flight with a long delay. These bars were pretty gosh darn delicious when I tasted them freshly baked, but for some reason they tasted even more scrumptious several days later. And I don't think it was because I was tired and starving.

There are raspberry bars and then there are the rich, buttery crust raspberry bars. Some are 'silver platter' status worthy, white others have no real discerning status. In other words, not all bars are created equal. Leave it to Nancy Silverton to set the raspberry 'bar' sky high. Having a perfect buttery crust and streusel topping to raspberry filling ratio, her Breakfast Bars are the bees knees.

If there was ever a raspberry dessert to lessen your craving for or keep you from mourning over the limited availability of the really good fresh raspberries at the farmer's markets or in the grocery stores, it would be these Raspberry Almond Bars.

The streusel topping comes together easily in a food processor. Silverton gives the options of using either pastry flour or all purpose flour. Pastry flour falls somewhere between all-purpose and cake flour on the flour continuum in terms of its' protein content, gluten levels, and baking properties. The slightly higher gluten content of pastry flour creates a kind of elasticity contributing to ensuring the buttery layers of croissants, puff pastry and crusts are held together. If you have pastry flour, use it for the crust as that is where it will make the most difference.

Once the dough for the crust is assembled, it needs to rest in the refrigerator for at least two hours or overnight. Chilling the dough further contributes to ensuring a flaky crust, reduces shrinkage during the baking process, and makes the dough easier to roll out. If you allow the dough to rest for more than two hours, you may need to allow it rest for 10-15 minutes before rolling as it may be initially 'too' hard to work with. Rather than roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, I like rolling out my dough on a large piece of parchment paper. This makes the process of transferring the dough to the baking pan easier.

In a preheated 350 degree (F) oven the crust is baked for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned. After the crust has baked and cooled, the raspberry jam is spread evenly over the bottom of the crust. The addition of sliced almonds is optional only for those of you who don't like or can't eat nuts. For everyone else, consider them a required ingredient. The bars are topped with the chilled streusel topping before going back into the oven for an additional 40 minutes of baking time. You might think you made too much streusel topping. You didn't. Use all of it. You won't be sorry.

After the baked bars have cooled, a light sprinkling of confectionary sugar gives them that bakery finished, irresistible look.

Slice them into either squares or bars.

Served at room temperature or chilled, these Raspberry Almond Bars are delicious both ways.

Whether you are having a brunch, need to bring a hostess gift, need to contribute something for a bake sale, planning a picnic, want to create a perfect start to a meeting, or just like having fresh baked pastries around, these Raspberry Almond Bars will most likely be what everyone won't be able to stop talking about.

There is a bit of effort going into these Raspberry Almond Bars. While the perception of effort is all relative, there are incredibly rich rewards to be had in the making of them. And who knows, you might even be given a pass for not cleaning your room.

Recipe
Raspberry Almond Bars (slight adaptation to Nancy Silverton's Breakfast Bars as shared in her Pastries from the LaBrea Bakery cookbook)

Ingredients
Streusel Topping
2 1/2 cups unbleached pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes and frozen
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten

Dough
4 cups unbleached pastry flour or unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1 inch cubes

Filling
2 cups raspberry jam (or 2 jars (13 ounce sized) Bonne Maman Raspberry Preserves)
1/2 cup sliced almonds, optional

Confectionary sugar for dusting, optional

Directions
Streusel Topping
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Pulse to incorporate ingredients.
2. Add butter and pulse on and off until it's the consistency of a coarse meal.
3. Transfer mixture to a bowl, and add the egg. Toss with your hands or a wooden spoon to incorporate. Mixture should be crumbly and uneven.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Dough and Assembly
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flour, sugars, cornstarch and salt. Add butter and pulse until dough begins to come together.
3. Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and gently knead to gather into a ball. Flatten into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap to chill until firm (at least 2 hours or overnight). Note: Dough will become very firm if chilled for more than 2 hours. Will need to allow to rest on counter for 10-15 minutes before rolling out.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F) and place rack in center of the oven. Line a 10"x16" baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
5. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to an 12"x18" inch rectangle, 1/4 inch thick. Flour surface of dough as needed. (Note: Rolling out dough on a piece of parchment paper makes the process of transferring dough to the pan easier.)
6. Place dough on baking sheet and bake until lightly browned, about 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool.
7. Spread jam over the surface of the crust.
8. Sprinkle sliced almonds over the crust. Note: Almonds are optional but add great flavor and dimension to the bars.
9. Spread a heavy layer of the topping over the jam and almonds. Note: The topping mixture may seem like it is too much. It's not.
10. Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until the topping is lightly browned.
11. Allow to cool on a baking rack. Sprinkle with confectionary sugar.
12. Cut into squares or bars and serve.
13. Store bars (covered) in the refrigerator. Allow to come to room temperature before serving. Note: Bars taste delicious chilled as well.