As I was flipping through Baked, a recipe for "Raspberry Crumb Breakfast Bars" caught my eye. Not knowing what a "breakfast bar" was (there was no picture to accompany the recipe), I thought it might be a granola bar of some sort. Fittingly enough, the cookbook authors introduce the recipe by admitting right off the bat that the bars are not technically a breakfast sweet. Instead, they characterize them as bars of the sort that are normally eaten in the afternoon or after dinner. In fact, they describe the bars as essentially a "thin raspberry sandwich" that you can eat any time you please (although they do point out that one of these bars makes a perfect morning pastry).
The preparation for these bars is quite simple. To make the crust, you just pulse the ingredients (flour, dark brown sugar, oats, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and butter) in a food processor. You reserve a cup of the resulting mixture and press the remainder into the bottom of a pan, baking it until the crust is golden brown. The filling is simply a mixture of dark brown sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon, flour, raspberries, lemon juice, and melted butter. You pour the filling onto the cooled crust, sprinkle on the remainder of the reserved oat mixture, and bake.
These bars are gorgeous after they are sliced, with a gloriously vibrant red filling. The flavor was reminiscent of an oatmeal cookie with a lot of tart raspberry thrown in. I thought the bars were tasty enough, but I doubt I'll be making these again, because I don't think they were special enough to justify the cost of the pound of raspberries that went into them. Also, the recipe indicates that the bars can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. I learned the hard way that these really do need to be kept refrigerated. At room temperature the crust gradually turns into a soggy mess, although you would never know it by just looking, because the bars retain their beautiful appearance... and I imagine that if you grab a spoon and maybe some ice cream or whipped cream, the soggy version might not be so bad!
Recipe: "Raspberry Crumb Breakfast Bars," from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.
The preparation for these bars is quite simple. To make the crust, you just pulse the ingredients (flour, dark brown sugar, oats, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and butter) in a food processor. You reserve a cup of the resulting mixture and press the remainder into the bottom of a pan, baking it until the crust is golden brown. The filling is simply a mixture of dark brown sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon, flour, raspberries, lemon juice, and melted butter. You pour the filling onto the cooled crust, sprinkle on the remainder of the reserved oat mixture, and bake.
These bars are gorgeous after they are sliced, with a gloriously vibrant red filling. The flavor was reminiscent of an oatmeal cookie with a lot of tart raspberry thrown in. I thought the bars were tasty enough, but I doubt I'll be making these again, because I don't think they were special enough to justify the cost of the pound of raspberries that went into them. Also, the recipe indicates that the bars can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. I learned the hard way that these really do need to be kept refrigerated. At room temperature the crust gradually turns into a soggy mess, although you would never know it by just looking, because the bars retain their beautiful appearance... and I imagine that if you grab a spoon and maybe some ice cream or whipped cream, the soggy version might not be so bad! Recipe: "Raspberry Crumb Breakfast Bars," from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.
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