Raspberry Crumb Bars & Updates

I haven't posted in a while, with good reason. I've been busy baking macarons for my business and have had less time to experiment with making new recipes for the blog. But it's been a wonderful past few weeks and I have lots of scribble-scrabble notes jotted down for future dessert ideas that I can't wait to share.


Today also happens to be my friend Kaylen's birthday! Kaylen owns Whisk Bakeshop, and it's where I sell my macarons. She's one of the most awesome and kindest people I've ever met. We met at the farmer's market last year and instantly clicked. We have a ridiculously large amount of things in common and it feels like we were always meant to be friends. She's my fave <3

A couple weeks back when she and her hubby, Pete went on a much needed vacation to the mountains, I wanted to put together a small box of goodies for them. I made some cookies n creme peanut butter (everyone should drop everything and go make some NOW). 
I also made some crumb bars, with both raspberry and Nutella (separately), brown butter krispy treats, added some movies that Joe and I love, new music, and cake balls and chocolate I had on hand.

This past weekend was Kaylen's birthday celebrations and I made this peanut butter Nutella tart in the form of individual shooters. Just crumble up the cookie dough and layer it with the tart filling--it's divine, and much simpler than having to worry about pressing tart dough and cutting slices.

My family also recently visited and it was a whirlwind of food and babies, galore. 

I loved having my niece and nephew around so, so much. We ate a ton of food and laughed a lot. The kids were unbearably cute and I had so much fun with my sister and brother in law. They're ten years older than me and I have visited and stayed with them a lot, so it was really important and exciting for me to be able to host them, take care of them and show them the city I love so much.
Of course, I'll be working out for the rest of the year to work off all that food we ate, but it was totally worth it :)

With all this craziness, our friends Neil and Sumee will also be visiting us this weekend and we are so looking forward to it! They recently got engaged and we met up with them to be a part of the surprise in Gatlinburg. It was a great time and we're gonna relive it all in a few days. 
And yesterday, another close friend of mine also got engaged, HLi! I've been waiting for my friends to get married for so long because I know their weddings will be awesome, so I'm super excited :P

Even with all this excitement, I haven't quite been able to forget how delicious these crumb bars turned out. I love me some raspberries and combined with a buttery shortbread, it's hard to stop munching on these. I divided the dough in half and did half with a Nutella topping and the other with raspberry jam. The raspberry jam won.

Raspberry Crumb Bars
From Flour Bakery
Makes about 16-20 squares (depending on size)

3 sticks (342g) butter

1/2 cup (100g) sugar

3 tbs p sugar

2 yolks

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 (175g) flour

1 1/2 cup (180g) cake flour

3/4 tsp b powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup (510g) raspberry jam

1/4 cup (35g) p sugar

Cream butter, powdered sugar, and sugar. 

Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. 

Add flour mixture and briefly combine. 

Remove a quarter of the dough and chill separately. 

Form disk about 8 inches in diameter and one inch thick and cover with plastic wrap--chill for about 30 minutes to an hour (or freeze for up to a month).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Roll out dough to a rectangle, with a thickness according to your preference onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Trim the edges so it has neat sides. 

Bake for 20 minutes until light brown.

Remove and let cool for 10-15 minutes. 

Then spoon raspberry jam on top of the still-warm shortbread.

Spread in an even layer with spoon, covering surface. 

Remove smaller dough from the fridge, and use a grater to make large flakes, evenly sprinkle over jam.

Bake another 20-25 minutes. 

Sift powdered sugar over the top. 

Trim edges again and cut into squares.