It has been already the end of the third week on our incredible journey of A-Z themed Blogging Marathon. I have reached the alphabet R without any hurdle and God help me to cross the next week too. Today for the alphabet R, I was not at all ready with a post. I had bookmarked a recipe from Joy of Baking and it was in my bookmarks till noon today. But I had to make it. So gathering up some strength, I baked these shortbread bars with lots and lots of raisins. If you are a raisin lover like my daughter, then this would be a perfect bake for you. The bars turned out light and crispy and the raisins added the softness in between the crispness.
Talking about my daughter, I wanted to share with you an incident a year back when she was in first standard. I used to go through Joy of Baking website regularly and she would join me watching the videos. One day, there was a speech she had to recite in a function and she was practising it at home. I forgot the speech but I remember that it ended with joy of learning. When she was reciting it to me, she ended it with Joy of Baking. We just couldn’t control our laughter. She was so much into watching the videos that anything starting with joy should end with baking. I used to tease her a lot with this incident and today I thought I would share with you all.
Recipe Source: Joy Of Baking
Makes 36 Bars
Ingredients:
Butter-1 cup
Icing Sugar-1 cup
Vanilla Essence-1 tsp
Flour/ Maida-2 1/2 cups
Salt-1/2 tsp
Black Raisins-2 cups ( I used a combination of golden and black raisins)]
Procedure:
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Butter a 9″ * 13″ tray.
3. In a bowl cream together butter and vanilla until soft and creamy.
4. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy.
5. Mix flour and salt in another bowl.
6. Add it to the butter mixture and knead into a soft dough.
7. Now divide it into two portions, one slightly larger than the other.
8. Take the smaller portion and press it into a thin layer with your fingers on the tray.
9. Evenly spread the raisins on the dough layer.
10. Press it into the dough using your fingers.
11. Now crumble the remaining dough and spread it evenly on the raisins.
12. Press well to incorporate it into the raisins.
13. Brush the top with a coating of milk. This gives a nice colour to the bars.
14. Now with a fork, make lines on the surface.
15. Bake this in oven for 30-35 minutes.
16. When the crust is golden, remove from oven, and using a serrated knife cut into bars.
17. Allow it to cool completely.
18. Remove bars and store in airtight jar.
19. Serve with a cup of coffee.
Cream together butter and vanilla.
Add sugar.
Cream until fluffy.
Add flour salt mixture.
Prepare a soft dough.
Divide it into two portions.
Spread the smaller portion on a tray.
Spread the raisins on it evenly and press.
Now crumble the remaining dough and spread it on the raisins.
Press it into the raisins.
Brush with milk.
Make lines with a fork.
Bake until golden.
Cut into bars and allow it to cool.
Remove bars from the tray.
Serve it with a cup of coffee…
Logo courtesy : Preeti
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 32
nice recipe,,easy too..
How delightful these bread look Gayathri..your daughter is so sweet!..and tell her she is awesome as she eats raisins..none of mine even tough it..
The raisin shortbread bars are tempting.
beautifulo shortbread recipe, i want to make them so badly, i loved your step by step guide
Wow these bars look so soft..and full of flavour. .they look pretty as well.with every post of yours my bookmarking list is increasing.
wow such an fabulous looking and delicious bar 🙂 lolz he he of course your have daughter proved that she is gonna be a incredible chef in the future 🙂
Wow Tempting recipe
droolworthy and awesome with lovely clicks.
The bars look fantastic, I can’t imagine the taste though. And love your girl’s little joke :))..Might happen with my son soon, I guess :))
oh your daughter is cute!!! and these raisin bars are mouth watering.. so buttery and delicious!! bookmarking..
One question – when we put the remaining dough on the raisins layer, why should we crumble and not put the layer as a sheet? And if we put crumble pieces, then will it not be uneven?
Sowmya
Sowmya, the dough is very soft and it is impossible to roll it as a big sheet. And while crumbling and pressing it, the raisins stick to the dough and and will not fall off while cutting. Though I pressed it, I didn’t press it firm and so many raisins fell apart.
Omg !another recipe to fall in love with! Delicious…
Looks delicious, Gayathri, and simple to make. Must try this!
I made the same recipe last yeat and these are so butter and crumbly and darn addictive aren’t they? Love your fork lines pattern 🙂
Wow, thats a fantastic shortbread bars, would love to have with a cup of coffee anytime.
Daughters are such treasures. The raisin shortbread is something I must try soon. Wonderful looking and I am sure tasting too.
superb shortbread bars 😉 who would not love them?
kids are always great ! they teach us some time ! shortbread bars are lovely !
great looking raisin bars ,they surely must have been very tasty and crumbly….
So delicious!
Your daughter is truly cho chweet!I guess they spend so much time with us browsing the blogs that it automatically gets into their brains!
And this one is really yum!Love the step by step pics and the fork marks on the bars…
I do love raisins and love these spotted sohortbreads
beautiful looking shortbread bars! love the raisins peeking !
Lovely recipe Gayathri…will be trying this out soon. Is there a way to search in your blog? I looked all over the place but couldnt find a search bar. I am looking for an eggless Lamingtons recipe, in case you have covered it before?
Love this recipe Gayathri…in fact most of your baking recipes as they are mostly egg-free. Is there a way to search through your blog for a recipe, for eg, I am looking for an eggless version of Lamingtons. Have you covered that earlier? I have looked through the blog site but cant find a search bar. It would be most helpful, if I need to look for a specific recipe.
Hi, There is a search bar just above the translate widget on the left side bar. You can search for recipes there. You can also go through the eggless bakes in the index on the top of the blog. Hope this helps. And here is the link to the eggless lamington I tried earlier. http://gayathriscookspot.blogspot.in/2012/07/eggless-lamington.html
wow!!These bars look so yummy Gayathri
This shortbread comeout so well and love the color and raisins..
Those bars look so delicious.. filled with raisins – they must have tasted amazing. Your daughter is si cute!!
These are amazing. Bookmarking it.
Hi Gayathri,
Mouth watering !!!! Should the butter be melted and then measured or do we just measure cold butter for 1 cup. Please let me know.
Thanks!
Lavanya
You don’t have to melt the butter Lavanya. Just fill a cup with room temperature butter..
Delicious! They came out great.. I added everything at one go instead of layering.
I think you meant 1c of raisins coz the original recipe says 1c & that was more than enough for these!