Monday, August 23, 2010

Very Cherry Berry Good

Lazy Sundays are the best days for baking. Yesterday, after I went to the grocery store I had a few hours to kill before Justin and I met up with some friends to eat crabs, so I browsed some recipes and came across one for...

Cherry Brown Butter Bars

They were actually a lot of easier than I expected, and don't have too many ingredients that aren't normalliny in your pantry - well that's if you keep your pantry stocked like mine.

Ingredients:
Dough
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 C splenda
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 C and 1 tbsp. whole wheat flour
Pinch of salt

Filling
1/2 C. splenda
1 self-serve size container of unsweetened apple sauce
Pinch of salt
1/4 C whole wheat flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, diced
Berries of choice - I used half a can of pitted cherries and a small container of raspberries

Steps:
Dough Mixture
Pre-heat oven to 375
Line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Make sure the entire surface is covered.
For dough: Mix melted butter, splenda and vanilla in medium bowl. Add flour and salt and stir until incorporated. Transfer dough to your prepared pan, and use fingertips to press the dough evenly across the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust until golden, about 18 minutes. Remove the dough and cool in pan while you make the filling.
Dough in pan
For filling: Cook butter in heavy small saucepan over medium heat until deep nutty brown (do not burn), stirring often and watching carefully, about six minutes. Immediately pour browned butter into glass cup to cool slightly.

Whisk splenda, applesauce, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Add flour and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Gradually whisk browned butter into filling mixture; whisk until well blended.

Arrange fruit
Arrange fruit in bottom of cooled crust. Carefully pour browned butter mixture evenly over the fruit. Bake bars until filling is puffed a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool bars completely in pan on rack.

Use the parchment paper overhang to carefully remove cooled bars from pan and place them on a cutting board and cut them into squares with a very sharp knife.

Pour filling over fruit
Tips: Make sure when you are pressing the dough that there are no cracks- this will make it easier when you are cutting the bars.
 
When you are pouring the filling over the fruit, make sure you are spreading it evenly. Mine seemed to gather mostly in the middle, so I had to use my fingers and try and push the filling around so that it was even.
 
Lastly, you can use any fruit that you would like in these, but I would definitely recommend something tart. Cherries and raspberries both tasted delicious. I would be interested in strawberry bars, but I guess I will have to wait and make those another time after these are all eaten!
 

1 comment:

Lauren said...

Hi!! Just found your blog through HLB :) I'm also in DC (I live in Gerogetown). Looking forward to reading more and meeting more DC bloggers!! :) Have a great day!