Easy Chocolate Raspberry Shortbread Bars

Welcome to what I’m Currently Craving! This is a series where I share my latest ingredient obsession and tell you a thing or two about its flavor, texture and unexpected ways to use it. My hope is that you will know by instinct how and when to incorporate it in different dishes, no matter if your recipe doesn’t call for it. No more forgotten ingredients in the dark corner of your pantry or in the last drawer of your fridge!

Currently Craving: Anything Preserves, Jellies and Jams

I love having preserves, jellies and jams around. They are such a life saver! Beyond the typical smear over a warm toast in the morning, you can use them in so many recipes, and that’s including savory ones. You can use them to fill a cake or cupcakes. They can dress up a simple pound cake with fresh fruits. You can fill mini hand pies or use some as a base for a larger pie. You can use them to add a note of sweetness to some spicy noodles or to glaze a roasted chicken. Or simply, you can drizzle that jammy syrup over pancakes, cheesecakes, a pavlova or any dessert that will shine with a fruity sweet touch. I would love to go on but I might never end with all the possibilities!

I know what you’re probably thinking. What’s the difference between preserves, jellies and jams anyway? The answer is simple! It has to do with how they are made.

What’s the jam with preserves, jellies and jams?

First, to make all three you will need fruits (obvi!), sugar and pectic. The amount of pectin will depends on how much or how little pectic the fruits you are using have. You can find commercial pectin, but high quality, artisanal and homemade jams will rely mostly on lemon juice or natural pectin extracted from apples.

The main difference between preserves, jellies and jams is the amount of fruit that goes into the recipe and the way the fruit is handled through the cooking process. 

If you have a jar of preserves, that means the fruits has been, well, preserved. It uses large chunks of the fruit or even the fruit whole, preserving it with the sugar. It’s great over hard cheeses because the consistency is pretty sturdy and not as runny. Marmalade is a type of preserves, made out of oranges and the oranges rind. Marmalades are not always made with oranges as the only fruit, but if the fruit being used it’s been preserved with any citrus rind, these are considered marmalade as well.

Jellies are made with fruit juice or strained pulp instead of fruit pieces. The juice is reduced and thicken with sugar and pectic. It’s ideal for drizzling over ice cream, slathering over your morning toast and of course, in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

And finally, you can say jams are the in-between. The meet-me-in-the middle of the fruit spreads world. It uses small chunks or chopped fruit pieces. Jams are perfect to fill up mini-hand pies, spooned over a warm muffin or over a hot baked brie. They are also fantastic over a roasted fish or to add some sweetness and texture. 

As I told you, you’ll easily find here a jar or four of any of them! One of the most special flavors to us is cherry jam because it’s Mariana’s favorite. The only thing is that we called it cherry jelly all the time, probably because it was way more fun to say it that way! Mariana loved her cherry jam spooned over her oatmeal with lots of cinnamon and I’m sure that now she can’t stop eating it in Heaven. That’s why I wanted to cherish it and make this cherry jam baked donuts. They are so soft and delicious! The cherry jelly swirled through the batter adds a nice texture with the little pieces of fruits. And you can use your favorite fruit jam of course!

Making baked donuts with a jam swirl

1. You will need a donut pan for baking these. They’re pretty affordable and I’m sure you will not stop using it once you start. If you don't have one you can check the donut pan I used. If you don’t have a donut pan you can use a muffin pan as well. Spray the pan with baking spray.

2. Star by mixing the flour, baking powder and salt. Then melt the butter and mix throughly with the dark brown sugar, the natural granulated sugar, the eggs and the coconut milk (use the canned coconut milk, not the boxed one).

3.  Gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet ones. Spoon some of the cherry jam and with a chopstick or large toothpick swirl just a bit. Add the rest of the jam and repeat. Don’t swirl too much because you don’t want the jelly mixed completely with the batter, and it will keep mixing when you transfer it to the plastic bag.

4. Transfer the batter to a large pastry bag with a large rounded tip and pipe the batter on each of the pan wells (if you don’t have a pastry bag you can use a large ziplock bag as well). You can also spoon the batter into the well, filling them just half way through. Remember that this is a very thick batter so you may need to spread it with your fingers. Bake for 10 minutes.

5. While the donuts are cooling down make the hibiscus glaze. Dip your donuts on it and let the glaze set a few minutes before eating. Enjoy every bite!

I’m sure you agree with me when I say the every morning should start with a batch of them! And if you want to find new ways to use preserves, jellies or jams in your creations, check some ideas below. But first, go and bake these super soft and easy baked donuts.

What should I be Craving next?!

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Easy Chocolate Raspberry Shortbread Bars

Ingredients

Shortbread Layer:

◯ Confectioner’s sugar - ½ cup
◯ Cornstarch - 3 ½ TBSP
◯ Natural granulated sugar - 2 ½ TBSP
◯ Regular butter - ¾ cup + 1 TBSP (1 ¼ stick + 1 TBSP or 13 TBSPS total), melted and warm
◯ Vanilla extract - ½ Tsp
◯ All-purpose flour, unbleached - 2 cups
◯ Fine sea salt - ½ Tsp

Raspberry Layer:

◯ Raspberries – About 2 cups
◯ Unbleached all purpose flour – 1 TBSP
◯ Freshly squeezed lemon juice - ½ TBSP (a splash of a half small lemon)
◯ Natural granulated sugar - 1 TBSP

Chocolate Layer:

◯ Semi-sweet chocolate chips – 1 ½ cups
◯ Coconut milk – ½ cup
◯ Raw sugar – ½ TBSP
◯ Vanilla extract – ¼ Tsp
◯ Pinch of fine sea salt

Details

Yield:
a 8” square pan, 16 2.5” square bars

Total Time:
about 6 hours, mostly chilling time in the fridge

Active time:
30 minutes, in intervals

Equipment:
stand mixer or hand electric mixer (optional), 8” pan, parchment paper

Steps

(You can mix the shortbread dough in a stand mixer, a hand electric mixer or by hand. If you do it by hand, remember it will be a crumbly and course mixture but you should try to not over mix the dough)

To prepare your 8 x 8 pan:

Cut a piece of cold butter and rub the bottom and sides of your pan. Rub the outer sides as well. This will serve as “glue” to keep the parchment paper on place.

Cut 2 - 8” x 16” parchment paper pieces (I use this unbleached parchment paper that is already cut in 12” x 16” sheets, so I just had to cut it 8” wide). Place one paper centered into the pan and press through the bottom and sides, inside and out. Rub some butter on the parchment paper area inside the pan and place the other piece of paper across. Again press the paper through the bottom, inside and outside the pan to seal it toward the pan. Spray some baking spray on the bottom and sides of your pan. Place it in the fridge until ready to use.

To make the shortbread layer:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Start by sifting together the ½ cup of confectioner’s sugar with the 3 ½ tablespoons of cornstarch and the 2 ½ tablespoon of granulated sugar over your mixing bowl. Pour the melted 13 tablespoons of butter and the ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract and mix until the sugar dissolves. You will end up with a runny paste. Sift over the flour and salt. Mix gently until you have something like a coarse dough.

Transfer the dough to your prepared pan. Press it with your hands until even. Bake between 22 to 25 minutes, until the top looks dry and golden brown. Remove from oven and let it cool down. When the shortbread stops steaming you can make the raspberry layer.

To make the raspberry layer:

In a small blender roughly purée the raspberries. You should have about 1 cup of the purée.

Mix about 2 tablespoons of the purée with the tablespoon of flour to make sure it is completely dissolved.

Transfer the purée to a small saucepan and mix in the half tablespoon of lemon juice and the tablespoon sugar. Cook in medium heat about 2 minutes to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Incorporate the raspberry purée flour mixture and cook 10 to 15 minutes, stirring slowly but frequently, until the mixture thickens to a pudding like consistency. Remove from heat and stir for 1 minute before pouring over cooled down shortbread layer.

Place in the fridge and chill until settled.

To make the chocolate layer:

Place the 1 ½ cup of chocolate chips in a medium bowl.

In a small saucepan bring the ½ cup of coconut milk to a gentle boil. Add the ½ tablespoon of sugar, the ¼ teaspoon of vanilla and the pinch of salt. Stir and cook until sugar has completely dissolved, about 1 minute. Pour over chocolate chips and wait one minute, then mix until all the chocolate has melted and it’s completely incorporated with the coconut milk (no coconut milk streaks visible).

Pour over chilled raspberry layer. Place in the fridge to chill and settle, about 4 hours or preferably overnight.