Raspberry Crumble Bars Recipe

There are lots of recipes out there for crumble bars, and these yummy jam filled treats are ones that I really love making for family and friends.

There is something about them that reminds me of being a kid. Maybe it's because I ate a whole lot of jam sandwiches growing up that my mom made for me, and that's where the association comes from. Food can bring up so many memories of the past for us. And fortunately for me, I grew up in a house where my mother was a good cook and we never went without full bellies and treats after dinner.

Sometimes you take things for granted and don't realize until years or decades later just how lucky you were.

Now as a grandmother, cooking and baking for my family is something I truly enjoy doing, and I hope they remember all of it with the love and affection that is put into whatever I make for them.

Anyhow, this is Ina Garten's recipe from her cookbook, Foolproof. Everyone who knows me knows I adore Ina, she has been a real inspiration for me for years now.

Recipe for Barefoot Contessa Raspberry Crumble Bars

Ingredients:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
10 to 12 ounces raspberry jam
2/3 cup granola without dried fruit
1/4 cup sliced almonds
Confectioners' sugar for sprinkling if desired

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on medium speed just until combined. With the mixer on low, add the vanilla.
Sift the flour and salt together and, with the mixer on low, slowly add to the butter mixture, mixing until it almost comes together in a ball. Turn the dough out on a board. Lightly pat two-thirds of the dough evenly on the bottom of a 9-inch square baking pan and about 1/4 inch up the sides.
Spread with the jam, leaving a 1/4-inch boarder. Mix the granola into the remaining dough with your hands. Break the dough into small bits and distribute it onto the top of the jam, covering most of the surface. Sprinkle the almonds on top. Bake the bars for 45 minutes, until lightly browned.
Cool completely and cup into 9 or 12 bars. Sprinkle lightly with confectioners' sugar if desired.

The recipe is actually quite easy to make and other kinds of jam would work well here too. I love the crust on these bars, it's soft and a little chewy.

Be sure to let them completely cool before slicing them so that they don't fall apart. I cut into them too early and had this problem, and had to let them sit longer so they would be firmer.

If you're looking for a treat to take on a picnic or the beach, these are a great choice, and they travel well. And they are just so yummy!!

Strawberry Clafoutis Recipe

This recipe for making a Clafoutis is becoming one of my favorites. It's sort of like a flan and a tart, and it's French, so how can you go wrong?
I know when I have read about making this dessert, it seemed like something I would never attempt. My first and only try at making flan was somewhat of a disaster, so a Clafoutis would have the same fate I thought.

But I was wrong, and it turned out delicious. So here I am again, using strawberries to make this one, and it's amazing.
A Clafoutis is very simple to make, and you can use different fruits in it for different tastes. It's creamy and smooth, and just fancy enough to impress your guests.
After it bakes in the oven, let it cool for a bit, then sprinkle it with powdered sugar. And you could even top it with a tiny bit of whipped cream if you like.



Recipe for Strawberry Clafoutis

Ingredients:

 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup half-and-half
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Brush a 9-inch ceramic pie plate or casserole dish with the melted butter.
In a large bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, egg yolk, sugar and almond extract. Add the flour and whisk just until smooth, being careful not to overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and scatter the raspberries evenly over the top.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the Clafoutis is just set and the surface is golden brown. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve warm. 

Serves 6.













Pear Crisp and Vanilla Ice Cream

Fruit crisps and crumbles are one of my favorite desserts to make. They are super easy and let you take advantage of whatever fruit is in season. Pears have always been a favorite in my family because when they are perfectly ripe, their sweet taste is just so delicious.

I made this easy Pear Crisp the other night for dessert and teamed it with vanilla ice cream. My family couldn't get enough of it. I thought there would be enough left over for my breakfast the next morning, but no such luck. That's ok though because there's not a bigger compliment to my baking and cooking than when my family eats every bite.

This recipe is inspired by an old one from The Pioneer Woman's blog. She's fabulous of course, and has been the inspiration for many a wonderful dish on my table.

I really love all types of pears, but I've found that Bosc pears hold up the best while cooking and don't get mushy the way some types can. Store any leftovers in the fridge and I think this tastes best right out of the oven or the next day. And topping it with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream makes it all the yummier in my book!!

Recipe for Pear Crisp with Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

For filling:

4-5 large Bosc pears
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

For topping:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
1 stick butter melted

Good quality vanilla ice cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Peel, core, and dice pears. Put into a bowl and add 2/3 cup sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Stir together, then set aside.
In another bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped pecans. While stirring ingredients, drizzle in melted butter and stir together until combined. Place pears in baking dish, spread crumb topping over pears evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Makes 4-5 servings.

Enjoy!!

Plum Butter Cake Recipe

Fruit desserts have always been one of my favorites, whether I'm baking them or eating them. The arrival of spring and summer means that I'll have plenty of different kinds of fruits to pick from, and plums are always on my shopping list.

I made this delicious Plum Butter Cake the other day because I got so excited to see plums in my local grocery store. The recipe is quite easy, and the batter is a basic yellow cake batter, scented with cinnamon. The plums also give a lovely flavor to the cake, too.

Last year a friend of one of my daughter's let us pick all the yellow plums that we could carry from her trees. We turned them into tarts, muffins, and topping for French toast and waffles. And we ate plums for days, it was heaven.

I could have let the plums I bought ripen more, but I was too excited to bake the cake. Apricots, nectarines, and peaches can be substituted for the plums if you like.

Recipe for Plum Butter Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
2 large eggs
6 plums, pitted and thickly sliced
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a 9-inch round or 8-inch square cake or deep dish pie plate. Line the bottom with parchment paper, and butter the paper.
Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix well, about 2 minutes.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Poke the plum slices into the batter, placing them close together. In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and 1 tablespoon sugar and sprinkle evenly over batter.
Bake 45-50 minutes, until the cake is golden on top, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack 30 minutes before serving.

Serves 6.

Easy Raspberry Crumble Recipe and Remembering My Father

I grew up in Southern California where our backyard was filled with fruit trees. Every summer my Dad made lemonade every few days because, being very frugal, he didn't want to see all of the huge amount of lemons we had go to waste. My father wasn't a very patient man, but he took his time making the lemonade just right, and giving me the first glass always made me feel special.

Oh, how I wish I had those lemons and all of the other fruit we had on our trees now!! Sometimes I just can't believe the price of fruit nowadays, and how much I took for granted that wonderful year round availability of it.

When I was a kid, every year in our Christmas stocking there would be a big, beautifully ripe orange. And I always wondered why Santa bothered to give us an orange when there was a whole bowl of them siting on the kitchen table.

Many years later my mother told me the reason. My father grew up poor in New York City. His mom died young and his dad turned into an alcoholic. It was hard for him to have a decent meal at times, let alone the luxury of fruit to eat. So for him, an orange was special, an extra that only some lucky people were able to have and enjoy.

When my dad grew up, he made his new home in Southern California, the land of orange groves everywhere you looked in those days. And he made sure that each of his kids always had an orange in their Christmas stockings.

Anyhow, on to this recipe for Raspberry Crumble, which is really delicious. It's also super easy to make, and I eat it for dessert and breakfast. If you are eating it for dessert, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a little whipped cream makes it even yummier.

Though I made this crumble with raspberries, the recipe adapts perfectly to other fruits like blackberries, pears, or apples. Crumbles are great no matter what time of year it is, but I will be so happy when summer arrives and the price of fruit at the grocery stores goes down.

And I'll be thinking of those many, many glasses of lemonade my Dad made for us, another thing I took for granted, and only learned to appreciate years later.


Recipe for Raspberry Crumble

Ingredients:

 3 cups fresh raspberries
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

 Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, add the butter, brown sugar, oats, flour, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix all together, then with a fork, break into small, loose pieces of dough.
 Layer the raspberries in a ceramic baking dish.
Spread the oat mixture evenly on top of the berries in the dish. Place the baking dish on a baking sheet, and bake in the oven for 25-28 minutes.
Let the crumble set until just warm and serve. Can be topped with vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream.

Serves 4.

Raspberry Clafoutis Recipe From Food52 Baking Cookbook

One of the things I wanted to do this year was to try new recipes from my cookbooks. I have a slight addiction to buying them, and it seems silly to not actually cook from them, and instead find recipes online. Of course, the internet is a great resource for this, but for me, nothing beats actually holding that book in my hands and seeing it on my shelves.

One of the books I bought so far this year is Food52 Baking. It's a great little cookbook filled with 60 easy to make desserts and treats. I love a cookbook that when I'm looking through it, I'll see recipes that I know I can attempt and hopefully succeed at.

When I first saw this recipe for Raspberry Clafoutis, I was thinking I wouldn't be trying it. A French word in the title alone is enough to stop me cold. And this recipe is like a flan, and I haven't had much luck making that dessert.

But when I read the recipe, it was very simple to make so I decided to give it a try. And I'm so glad I did because it turned out so delicious. It's very smooth and creamy, and the raspberries give it a little tartness that blends beautifully with the sweet.

Recipe for Raspberry Clafoutis

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup half-and-half
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Brush a 9-inch ceramic pie plate or casserole dish with the melted butter.
In a large bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, egg yolk, sugar and almond extract. Add the flour and whisk just until smooth, being careful not to overmix. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and scatter the raspberries evenly over the top.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the Clafoutis is just set and the surface is golden brown. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve warm. 

Serves 6.

You could also pour the mixture into ramekins to make individual desserts, which I'm going to do next time I make this. I can also see using other kinds of berries with this, as the Clafoutis is a delicious base that would adapt to it.

Enjoy!!

Apple Cranberry Galette Recipe

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and it's advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SplendaHoliday #CollectiveBias

The holidays are now in full swing, and I'm pulling out all my holiday cookbooks and magazines to bake some of my favorite recipes for family and friends. Holiday desserts and treats are always very welcomed at parties and our friend's homes, and I'm happy to bring them.

Apples and cranberries are both delicious on their own, but I think that when you combine them, they are especially good. As much as I love pie, it's not always easy to make a great piecrust. But when you make a galette, it's very simple because you are rolling out one free form piece of dough. In fact, the more rustic looking, the better!

All this dessert eating means that my family and I are eating an awful lot of sugar. But that doesn't have to be the case when I bake with SPLENDA® Sugar Blend, and SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend that I picked up at Walmart.

Did you know that the average American consumes more than 22 teaspoons of added sugar a day? And by swapping one cup of sugar with one cup of SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated, you can save more than 600 calories!

With all the treats that we eat during the holiday season, using SPLENDA® is a great way to help avoid that extra holiday weight gain that we all seem to have.

Adding frozen yogurt instead of ice cream to a slice of the galette helps keep the calorie count down without sacrificing any of the great taste.

My recipe called for white sugar for the dough, and brown sugar for the fruit filling. I used half the amount of SPLENDA® that I would have used of regular sugar, and I think the recipe turned out great!

You can go to the SPLENDA® SWEET SWAPS™ website to get recipes and tips on how to swap out SPLENDA® for regular sugar in your baking and cooking.

The first thing you are going to do to make this galette is to make the dough, which is quite easy, and then leave it in the refrigerator for at least and hour. You want the dough to be nice and chilled so that it handles better.
Then you peel and slice 4-5 apples. Then toss them in a frying pan with melted butter, SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend, cinnamon, and nutmeg. After they are softened, add the cranberries and cook for a few minutes more.
Roll out the dough into a rough circle, place the fruit into the center of it, and fold the edges over the fruit. Brush the dough with an egg wash, and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes.

Recipe for Apple Cranberry Galette

Ingredients:

For crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons SPLENDA® Sugar Blend
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
4 tablespoons ice-cold milk

For Fruit Filling:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4-5 apples, peeled and sliced
1 cup fresh cranberries
1/4 cup SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

For making crust, combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk together egg yolk and milk, pour into flour mixture, stirring just until dough starts to form a ball. Press together with lightly floured hands, and form into a flat disk. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

 Peel and core apples; cut each into wedges. In a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons butter. When butter is foamy, add apples and stir frequently until they are slightly softened, about 10 minutes. Add cranberries.
Sprinkle brown sugar blend, cinnamon, and nutmeg over apples. Stir into fruit, and continue cooking about 5 minutes more.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into an approximate
10-inch round. Place on a large baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Scoop fruit mixture into center of round.
Fold about 1 inch of dough all the way around to form a rim. Combine egg and water, brush outside of galette with the egg wash.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on pan 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

J&J Holiday Baking with Splenda

You can find SPLENDA® products in the baking aisle at your local Walmart. What SWEET SWAPS™ recipe would you like to make for the holidays?

Be sure to check out more delicious recipes using SPLENDA® right here on their Pinterest board.

Happy baking!

Raspberry Cobbler Recipe

This summer seems like it has just flown by, doesn't it? Pretty soon school will start, and two of my grandsons will be starting kindergarten this year. I can't believe these little guys are each five years old, they still seem like babies to me in so many ways.

But I'm still hanging onto summer as long as I can, and making fruit desserts with all that summer fruit still in the markets. Raspberries are a favorite with my family, so I decided to make this delicious Raspberry Cobbler for us all.

This is a super easy recipe, and you can substitute other berries if you don't have raspberries, or do a combination of different kinds. I love making this as a dessert, and then having any leftovers for breakfast the next morning.

When I was a kid, my parents always topped fruit desserts with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, and it's a tradition that I'm more than happy to carry on.

Recipe for Raspberry Cobbler

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh raspberries 

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°. Grease  8” square ceramic baking dish.

Place berries in prepared pan. Drizzle with lemon juice.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until well-blended. Mix in dry ingredients until mixture resembles crumbs. Drop dough evenly on top of berries.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until top is lightly browned and fruit is bubbly.

 

Serves 6.

Plum And Raspberry Galette Recipe

A few days ago my family and I went to a friends' house to pick yellow plums from her plum trees. We brought back baskets full of the sweetest, juiciest, plums I've ever eaten.

I'd never seen or heard about yellow plums before, all I know is that they are delicious. So I decide to make a couple of fruit galettes, one for my family and one for our friend who let us pick the plums.

I decided to combine the yellow plums with some raspberries. I've found that raspberries go really well with other kinds of fruit in a galette or pie, or even a fruit crisp.

The warm weather we've been having here in the Seattle area has helped make the plums ripen beautifully. There were so many of them, and the air was actually fragrant with the smell of sweet plums.

 Even my grandchildren picked some when we held them up high enough so they could reach them. And we ate as we picked because they were so delicious, right of the tree.

I know a lot of people get nervous about making pastry, so making a pie can seem intimidating. I felt that way too, so I started making fruit galettes.

They are really quite easy to make, and I love the rough, rustic way they look. You only make one piece of pastry, and then pile the fruit filling in the center and then fold the dough in on top of itself.

I love making these, and they are really so delicious. I hope our friend likes the one I'm making her as a thank you for all those delicious plums.

Recipe for Plum and Raspberry Galette

Ingredients for pastry dough:

 2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg yolk
3 tablespoons ice-cold milk

1 egg
1 tablespoon water (to make egg wash)

Directions:

  Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Whisk together egg yolk and milk, pour into flour mixture, stirring just until dough starts to form a ball.
Press together with lightly floured hands, and form into a flat round. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Ingredients for filling:

 4 cups yellow plums, quartered, pitted, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 cup fresh raspberries
 1/2 cup sugar
 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions:

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss together plums, raspberries, sugar, and flour.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface into an approximate
10-inch round. Place on a large, lightly greased baking sheet. Scoop plum and raspberries mixture into center of round.
Fold about 1 inch of dough all the way around to form a rim. Combine egg and water, brush outside of galette with the egg wash.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on pan 20 minutes, then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Can be served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Serves 6.

Blackberry Crumble Recipe

Here in Washington State, blackberries grow wild during part of July and all of August. You can literally go outside in your yard or at the park, and pick a zillion of them if you want.

I used to pick them with my youngest daughter Megan, and now I pick them with my grandchildren. I love how this tradition continues on, and it's something I look forward to every summer.

Of course with all those picked berries, we like using them in different ways and different recipes. One of my absolute favorites is this Blackberry Crumble. It's super easy to make, and my granddaughter Ashley helped me make it. At three years old, she loves stirring things, so mixing together the oats, flour, brown sugar, and butter was her job. And she loved eating something yummy that she helped make.

This crumble can be made with other kinds of fruits, such as raspberries or peaches. You can serve it for dessert or breakfast. And as a dessert, it's extra delicious served warm and with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.

Recipe for Blackberry Crumble

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh blackberries
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, add the butter, brown sugar, oats, flour, salt, and vanilla. Mix all together, then with a fork, break into small, loose pieces of dough.
Divide the blackberries evenly in 4-6 (depending on size) ceramic ramekins.
Spread the oat mixture evenly on top of the berries in the ramekins. Place ramekins on a baking sheet, and bake in the oven for 25-28 minutes.
Let the crumble set until just warm and serve. Can be topped with vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream.

Pear Upside-Down Cake Recipe

Yesterday when I was in the grocery store, I couldn't help noticing all the gorgeous looking fruit available. Everything just looked so ripe and luscious, especially the pears.

Since I love desserts made with fruit, like my Apple Cake, and my Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, I decided to make this Pear Upside-Down Cake with the pears I had bought.

It turned out delicious, and my family had a great dessert on a busy weeknight, which they really appreciated. I didn't have a lot of time to make these kinds of cakes when my five kids were growing up. So much of motherhood is just getting through the day with everyone clean and fed.

So it's nice to be able to spend the time making a cake like this now. It's not really that food is love, or maybe it is, but taking the time to make something for the people you love.

 

Of course everything tastes better with a scoop of ice cream on it, right? This cake is well worth the effort, and holds together really well, perfect for taking it to a friend's house to share it, or even on a picnic.

Just make sure your pears are nice and ripe, and try to use Bosc or Anjou variety. And when you flip it over onto the cake plate when it's done, I let it rest for a couple of minutes like that so the cake comes out in one piece.

Recipe for Pear Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 firm but ripe pears (like Bosc or Anjou) peeled, cored, and sliced
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 9-or-10 inch round, metal cake pan, over medium heat, melt 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter with the brown sugar. Stir until butter melts and mixture is slightly caramelized, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Arrange pears slices, slightly overlapping, in a neat circular pattern on top of the caramel.

In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat remaining 1/2 cup butter with flour, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla for 1 minute on low speed. Increase speed to high and beat 3 minutes longer. Pour batter over pears in the pan.

Bake 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center. Run a thin spatula around the edges of the cake and then invert onto a heat-proof cake plate. Let rest for 2 minutes and then remove pan.

Serve cake warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if desired.
Serves 6-8.