So Much Goodness to the Square Inch: Pebbly Beach Fruit Squares

The first recipe in the "Chewy" section of Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy cookbook is "Pebbly Beach Fruit Squares." I added them to my to-bake list right away because they reminded me of the beloved raisin biscuits of my childhood. Medrich says that this recipe started out as a raisin cookie, but she suggests prunes, apricots, cherries, dates, cranberries, and candied ginger as alternate fillings. The headnote describes these as "crunchy-crisp and chewy cookies," which sounded like the best of both worlds to me.

You make the cookie dough by beating butter with sugar; adding an egg, vanilla, and lemon zest; and incorporating the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt). You need to chill the dough for a few hours before rolling it out. After the dough is firm, you roll it out into a long rectangle, sprinkle the dried fruit of your choice on top (I used a mixture of chopped apricots, golden raisins, and tart cherries), fold the dough over the fruit to encase it inside, sprinkle the dough with coarse sugar (I used demerara), cut it into squares, and bake. This dough was easy to handle and I was able to roll it out on parchment without having to use any flour.

These squares might just be a cookie with dried fruit inside but I thought they were freakin' delicious. They hit on all cylinders -- a crisp, buttery cookie with a bright hit of lemon, a crunchy sugar coating, and a chewy fruit filling bursting with flavor. I love, love, love these cookies and could easily sit down and eat an entire batch of them. They might look like nothing more than lumpy squares of dough, but they deliver so much goodness to the square inch. 

Recipe: "Pebbly Beach Fruit Squares" from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich.

Previous Post: "A Chewy Childhood Favorite: Golden Raisin Biscuit Cookies," July 29, 2014.