Right this moment, I have a massive headache. I am looking at the screen with lowest brightness and even that dim light sends lightning bolts inside my head. I am wishing that something to make me happy, like these shortbread bars, were here right now.

 

 

As Rachel Khoo would say, “butter makes everything better”. Yes, I have to admit, it does, provided of course you use good quality butter. These semi-crumbly shortbread bars pack a good punch of butter in them.

 

 

 

The making of these shortbread bars are quite easy actually. But I will still mark it as “medium” difficulty, as there are multiple layers in them and it takes a while and steps to bake them.

 

 

If you have a rectangle or square tin with removable base, I would recommend to use that one to be honest. I didn’t have any so I baked in a ceramic oven dish. It was alright to bake in that, however it was a little hard to take away the pieces.

 

Ok, I won’t be able to write more because of the headache. I hope you read this blog post without any pain in your body!!
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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty: Medium
(makes 24 slices, in 20x30cm dish)

 

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

 

225 gr butter, softened to room temperature
1 dl + 1 tsp (75 gr.) coconut sugar
1 dl + 1 tbsp + 2 tsp (115 gr.) light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
a generous pinch of salt
1.5 dl (150 gr.) semolina
5 dl (300 gr.) all-purpose flour
200 gr. fresh (or frozen) raspberries
6 tbsp raspberry jam
1 dl sliced almonds

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease an oven dish sized 20x30cm.

 

2. In a mixing bowl, put the first 5 ingredients (from butter to salt) and beat well in medium speed until they get creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.

 

 

 

 

3. Add semolina and flour and continue beating in medium speed until incorporated.

 

 

 

 

4. Knead the batter inside the bowl just a little to make sure that all the ingredients are well mixed. Transfer the batter to a clean bowl.

 

 

 

5. Spread two-thirds of the batter on the base of the greased dish and press well. Put this in the oven, in medium rack, and bake for about 20-25 minutes, until the surface starts to get browned. Put the remaining batter in the fridge.

 

 

 

 

6. While the first step of baking is happening, in a medium bowl, put raspberries and jam. Using a fork, squash the raspberries a little into the jam.

 

 

 

7. Take out the partially baked batter out of the oven, spread raspberry mixture on top of it evenly with a spatula.

 

 

 

 

8. Spread the remaining batter on top of raspberry mixture and finally, spread sliced almonds to cover the whole surface. Put the dish back in the oven and continue to bake for about 30-35 minutes, until the surface gets golden brown. When it is baked, take out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature, then cut in slices. Enjoy with fresh tea or coffee!