For me, a dessert needs to be light, lots of flavors and textures and it should be the perfect ending to a special meal. I am applying my Scottish roots and bringing a shortbread recipe into this dessert and it will feature my favorite berry combination. With some thawed, mixed berries, the reserved juice, all the love of shortbread will be coming together, and you will get to enjoy these shortbread bars after about 30 minutes of baking time!
If you are someone who is gluten-free, just use your favorite 1-to-1 mix and also your favorite oats. If you are vegan or dairy-free, you can easily use your plant-based spread instead.
INGREDIENTS:
2 C AP Flour
1 C Oats
3/4lb Butter, salted
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking Powder
16oz Mixed Berries, thawed, juice reserved.
2-3 TB Cornstarch
PREHEAT OVEN: 350°F/177°C
1.) Into a mixing bowl, add your frozen berries and allow to thaw completely. Reserve the fruit juice. 2.) Add cornstarch to the berry juice and mix well. Make sure this is well incorporated. Set aside. 3.) Into a separate mixing bowl, add your flour, oats, vanilla, baking powder, and butter 4.) With a hand-mixer, start breaking the butter into the dry mixture. This can take a good 10 minutes before the butter starts to break down. 5.) Once the mixer no longer breaks that butter down, it is time to go in with your hands. 6.) Mash the flour mixture and butter with your hands, massaging them together. You want to achieve a wet-sand appearance. 7.) Once there are no more buttery lumps, take a small amount of the mixture into your hand and press firmly. If the mixture holds its shape, you have the right consistency to work with. 8.) Into a 9x9 square pan, lined with parchment paper and lightly sprayed with pan spray, take 2/3 of your composed mixture and evenly distribute in your pan. 9.) Either with another of the same pan or the bottom of your measuring cup, begin pressing the crumbled mixture downward to form the base. 10.) Take your slurried mixed berries and distribute evenly on top of the pressed shortbread. 11.) With the remaining 1/3 mixture, evenly distribute directly on top. You can either gently press it downward with your hands or with more pressure, use another same-shaped pan to press this down. Be careful not to crush the berry mixture.
12.) Start your timer on 15 minutes. Once the timer goes, rotate your pan and bake for another 15 minutes or until you start to see some light, golden brown around the edges
Allow this to cool completely before cutting.
For optimal cutting, refrigerate first and your cuts will be perfect.
This 9x9 can serve four to eight people, depending on how you cut the bars.
Dust with powdered sugar or create a glaze with confectioners sugar and milk.
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OPTIONS: Other fruits work well with this: diced or sliced apple, pears, cherries, peaches, apricots, strawberries, seasoned pumpkin puree, seasoned butternut squash, seasoned sweet potato, pureed figs and dates, cooked rhubarb.
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