Category: Shortbread

Apple Pie Bars

11/16/2019

I probably drive the BF crazy [Ed. note: like no one else, and for some reason I can't help myself], but I start asking him to choose his birthday cake-dessert about a month before his birthday. Usually give a choice of some great found recipe that includes either apples, caramel, butterscotch or lemon. Love hunting for the perfect recipe, with the goal of getting his eyes to bug out.

These apple pie bars are a client favorite, and whenever I make them the BF ends up in the kitchen, plaintively staring and asking if there are "extras." [Ed. note: "Oh those were for the clients?"] Needless to say the dessert has become one of his favorites, so I decided to make it for his birthday in lieu of a traditional cake. This was a very special birthday, by the way. [Ed. note: #LOLOLD]

One of the great things about this dessert is the shortbread dough is used for both the bottom crust and crumble on top. (Meaning there's no pie crust to roll out.) As the brilliant Ina Garten likes to say, "How easy is that?"

To really send it over the top, drizzle the bars with gooey caramel (optional, but recommended). Perfectly okay to eat with your hands, or dish/bowl them up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

In addition to offering an alternative to your everyday pedestrian cookie, these bars have another perk: they travel well. Simply wrap up the baking pan and cut the bars when you get to your destination. As for optimal portion size, Garten advises, "I cut the bars in fairly large 3 x 3-inch squares if I'm serving them on a plate with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. If I'm serving them on a platter of small petits fours to pick up with your fingers, I'll cut them in smaller bite-size pieces."

NOTES:

You can cut this recipe in half by preparing it in an 8 x 8-inch pan.
After baking, cool completely, wrap tightly and store at room temperature for up to two days. Great for birthdays, every day, and is a perfect make-ahead dessert for Thanksgiving.

PS: Speaking of Thanksgiving, a year ago we were thinking ahead with this whipped cranberry butter (www.moveablefeast.me/blog/whipped-cranberry-butter). Also, Adam Sandler sings!

PPS: Another client-approved holiday-time dessert, your friends and family won't know this yummy mini pumpkin cheesecake is sugar-free and low-carb. That is, unless you tell them. So don't. (www.moveablefeast.me/blog/mini-pumpkin-cheesecake-sugar-free-and-low-carb)

Adapted from: Ina Garten, Cooking For Jeffrey
Number of Servings: Makes one 9 x 13-inch pan

Ingredients
Crust

1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature [Ed. note: ROOM TEMPERATURE]
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Apple Filling

3 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, quartered, cored, and sliced ⅛-inch thick (6 large)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter

To Serve

Vanilla ice cream
Caramel sauce

Directions
Crust

Place a rack in the center of oven and preheat to 375 ºF. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper so that paper hangs over two edges of the pan by about two inches. This will make the pie bars easier to remove after it’s baked.
Place the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, until light and creamy. Sift the flour and salt together and, with the mixer on low, slowly add to the butter-sugar mixture, beating until combined.
Scatter ⅔ of the dough, in clumps, into your baking pan, and press it lightly with floured hands on the bottom and ½ inch up the sides. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Set aside to cool.
Put mixing bowl with the remaining dough back in the mixer, add walnuts and cinnamon, and mix on low speed to combine. Set aside.
Reduce the oven to 350 ºF.

Apple Filling

Combine the Granny Smith apples and lemon juice into a very large bowl. Add granulated sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix well.
Melt the butter in a large (10-inch-diameter) pot, add the apples, and simmer over medium to medium-low heat, stirring often, for 12-15 minutes, until apples are tender and the liquid has mostly evaporated.
Spread the apples evenly over the crust, leaving a ½-inch border.
Pinch medium pieces of the remaining dough with your fingers and drop them evenly on top of the apples (they will not be covered). Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the topping is browned. NOTE: I sometimes place the pan under the broiler to get the topping a little more browned. Watch carefully so it doesn't burn.

To Serve

Cool completely and cut into bars.
Drizzle with caramel and serve with ice cream, or just pick 'em up with your hands.

6 Comments

Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies

1/29/2019

2 Comments

This cookie went viral in autumn of 2017. [Ed. note: At our current pace, that is roughly 27,538 news cycles, since then. Give or take.] At the time, it didn't really look like much of a cookie to me, but I probably should have believed the hype. Have lost count how many times I've made these.

The recipe comes from Alison Roman's cookbook Dining In. In New York magazine’s Grub Street Diet blog, Roman mentioned that she has but one cookie recipe in her book, and it’s for these cookies. She said that it is, “in [her] opinion, way better than a chocolate-chip cookie.” Not sure about that, but I'll tell you that when I make them the BF and I can't stop eating them. [Ed. note: Sweet.]

A few notes that will perfect your cookies:

Use a lower protein all-purpose flour such as Gold Medal, not King Arthur.
Use a good salted butter (Kerrygold was used here).
Do not overbake, even if they look underdone.
Chop chocolate in chunks, not shards.
Let rest overnight or longer.

PS: A year ago we summoned our Whole30 aspirations with this roasted potatoes and coconut turmeric sauce (www.moveablefeast.me/blog/roasted-potatoes-coconut-turmeric-sauce), then uh well yeah like threw that into the proverbial circular file with some Super Bowl-food Mississippi roast mini cheesesteaks ( www.moveablefeast.me/blog/mississippi-roast-mini-cheesesteaks). [Ed. note: It should be noted that because the game-time food was cheesesteaks that this had everything to do with the Philadelphia Eagles winning said Super Bowl.]

Adapted from: Alison Roman, Dining In and Smitten Kitchen
Number of Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (9 ounces or 255 grams) salted butter, cold, cut into small pieces (Kerrygold butter was used here)
½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
¼ cup (50 grams) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups (295 grams) all-purpose flour
6 ounces (170 grams) semi- or bittersweet dark chocolate, chopped (you want chunks, not thin shards of chocolate)
1 large egg
Demerara, turbinado, raw, or sanding sugar, for rolling
Flaky sea salt for sprinkling

Directions

Beat the butter, granulated and brown sugars, and vanilla with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, scraping down bowl as needed. Add flour, and mix until just combined. Add chocolate chunks, mix until just incorporated. Mixture will look crumbly.
Divide between two sheets of parchment paper, waxed paper, or plastic wrap and use your hands to form the dough halves into log shapes about 2-2 ¼ inches in diameter. Chill until firm, at least 4 hours, but ideally overnight.
When you’re ready to bake the cookies, heat your oven to 350 °F. Line one or two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly beat the egg and open up your chilled cookie logs, and brush egg over the sides. Sprinkle the coarse sugar on the open paper or plastic wrap and roll the logs into it, coating them.
Using a sharp serrated knife, cut logs into ½-inch thick rounds. You’re probably going to hit a few chocolate chunks, so saw gently, squeezing the cookie to keep it from breaking, if needed.
Arrange cookie slices on prepared sheets one inch apart (they don’t spread much) and sprinkle each with a few flakes of salt. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to get golden brown. They might look soft. Take them out of the oven and let cool slightly before transferring to wire racks to cool.
Plan ahead: the dough can made ahead and stored, tightly wrapped in plastic, up to one week in the fridge, or one month in the freezer. Baked cookies keep in an airtight container for five days,

2 Comments

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Apple Pie Bars

Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies

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