Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond Bars
By: Kas Tebbetts
Tags: Food, Chocolate, Recipe

Way back in June I made these Coconut Heaven Bars. They were so heavenly that they set the bar (pun intended) extremely high for any kind of bar cookies. More importantly, the heavenly bars taught me the importance of layers. (Actually, Shrek taught me that. Moving on.) Layers of goodness: crunchy almond cookie on the bottom, pure dark chocolate, soft sweet cookie on top and rum-raspberry swirl.

It’s the little things that make this one great: ripe raspberries, dark chocolate, toasted almonds (much more flavor), fancy vanilla, and a little hit of flavor-enhancing rum.

The raspberries get ground up in the blender with rum, vanilla, cinnamon, and just a touch of honey. Like an alcoholic smoothie! Then the pain-in-the-butt part: you painstakingly push the raspberry puree through a sieve into a small saucepan. Put that on medium-low heat to bubble and reduce and make your kitchen smell like berry heaven!

Now for the crust. We’re keeping it simple to let all the other ingredients shine. Butter and sugar are the most important, creamed until super fluffy. Eggs, vanilla, and dry ingredients follow. Then I set aside 1/3 of the dough. That dough will go on top of the bars, and bake up like a soft sugar cookie. The other 2/3 of the dough gets mixed with the almonds to make the bottom layer.

The warm almond cookie crust is perfect to melt the dark chocolate chips. Just sprinkle them on and spread them around. It’s very satisfying. Then comes the remaining cookie dough, and finally, dollops of raspberry goodness.

A little swirl with a butter knife and… voila! Go ahead. Feel fancy.

Ready to go into the oven one last time. These bars look and taste worthy of a French patisserie! No one has to know how easy they are to make.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almond Bars

Makes: 16 bars, Time: 40 min prep, 30 min baking

Ingredients: 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp rum, 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 1/4 cups slivered blanched almonds, 1 cup dark chocolate chips For the raspberry swirl: 9 oz fresh raspberries (about 1 and 1/2 small packages), 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 1/2 tbsp rum, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp honey 1. Heat oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread slivered blanched almonds evenly over the sheet. Toast for 8–10 minutes, stirring the almonds halfway. Once the almonds have cooled, roughly chop them and set aside. 2. In a blender or food processor, blend raspberries with vanilla, rum, cinnamon, and honey. Once the mixture is mixed and liquidy, strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a saucepan to remove the raspberry seeds. (Use a spatula to help push the liquid through the sieve faster.) 3. Bring the strained raspberry puree to a simmer on medium-low heat, then reduce heat and continue cooking for about 8 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened. Transfer the raspberry mixture to a bowl to cool. 4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit on convection, or 350 degrees Fahrenheit regular bake. Line the bottom of an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper so that the sides of the paper hang over the top of the pan for easy removal. Grease the pan with baking spray. 5. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and egg yolk, one at a time, beating until well combined. Add vanilla and rum and mix. 6. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture gradually until fully incorporated into a nice dough. 7. Separate about 1/3 of the dough and set it aside. Fold in the almonds to the remaining 2/3 of dough. 8. Press the almond dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit on convection for 8–10 minutes, or until goldenon top. Remove the pan and increase oven heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, regular bake. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the warm almond crust. Use a spatula to gently spread the chocolate as it melts. 9. Spread the plain cookie dough that you set aside over the melted chocolate. It may be helpful to wait a few minutes to let the chocolate cool first. 10. Use a spoon to dollop raspberry mixture on top of the plain cookie dough. Then drag a butter knife through the dollops vertically and horizontally to create pretty swirls. 11. Return pan to oven and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, or until the cookie dough on top is set.

This beautiful creation all started with a recipe for Apricot Sticks from The Elegant But Easy Cookbook (1967). I know, you’re thinking, “Apricot sticks? Gross. What does that have to do with these delicious bars?” Well, it gave me a bar cookie dough recipe, and then I got creative. A little raspberry, a little rum. What could go wrong? That’s the fun of baking for me:

experimentation.

Don’t let trying new things intimidate you. I find that about 90% of the time, it may not look pretty, but it tastes good.

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