End of Summer Blueberry Shortbread Bars

Labor Day weekend has come and gone, and we spent some wonderful time with our family in Tennessee (pictures to follow, when I get them from another family member who brought a camera, as I did not–for shame!).  We spent the weekend relaxing, checking out Elvis’s old digs, toasting and eating Reese’s-stuffed marshmallows, having the best BBQ in the world, tasting some southern snacks like Moon Pies and Goo-Goo Clusters (a reason in itself to return to Tennessee) an, most importantly, meeting some people that we’ve wondered about for our whole lives.  It was a thought-provoking trip filled with joy and excitement, and it was really great to spend some extra time with people that we don’t see everyday, no matter how close they may be.

Here’s a strange thing about Tennessee–the creatures there are either prehistoric and/or have been exposed to some sort of radioactivity.  On Friday we found a cicada the size of the palm of my hand, on Saturday we found spiders that spanned the length of my inner arm (not that I got anywhere near them to measure), and on Sunday we found a half-cricket, half-dog specimen that a small child probably could have ridden.  There’s something in the water.

On another note, Labor Day is (almost) over, and that means that berries are going to be heading out of season fast.  That said, I used some perfect blueberries a few weeks ago (just posting now, I apologize) to make the perfect blueberry shortbread bar.  Sweet, buttery, and salty, with a bit of tang from the blueberries, these bar cookies are a must-make.

The crumble and crust are both made of the same ingredients, but the different textures of the two make them taste very different from one another (and who doesn’t love a good shortbread and a good crumble?).  They’re also quick and very easy–seriously, seriously easy.  So jump on it!

Blueberry Shortbread Bars

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

FOR CRUST & CRUMBLE:

3 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

zest from 1 lemon

1 c. butter, chilled

1 egg

FOR FILLING:

4 c. blueberries

juice from 1 lemon

1/2 c. sugar

4 tsp. cornstarch

TO MAKE:

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Grease a 9 x 13” pan with butter and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, sugar (1 cup), salt, and lemon zest.  Cut in butter and egg, and mix/cut until a dough is formed.*  Pat half of the dough into the bottom of the pan.

To make the filling, stir the blueberries, lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch together.  Pour the filling in the pan and spread evenly.

Crumble the remaining dough on top of the filling.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the top of the crust is golden brown.  Allow bars to cool on a wire rack, then place in the refrigerator, if you’d like, for 1 hour, before cutting.

I cut my bars into tiny bites, and ended up with about 48 cookies, but cut to whatever size your little heart desires.  And go back for seconds.

*When I’m making dough, I typically cut butter into 1/2 tbsp. pieces and then continue to cut with a knife or fork until the butter and egg and somewhat mixed in.  Then I just dig my hands in and “crumble” the dough between my fingers until it is sticky and holds together when squished.

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CinnaMini Cookie Bites

**Posted just for you, Tracey!

On Tuesday night I got home from dinner at a delicious little Latino restaurant where I feasted on far too much food and dessert, and decided it was time to make 500 cookies.

It was about 9:00 at this point, but I knew I needed to get this done in time for my trip this weekend.  I set out making the dough as one would normally make cookie dough—mix dry ingredients in medium bowl, fluff butter, add eggs, vanilla, molasses, etc.  Mix dry and wet ingredients together until just combined.  It was at this point that I tasted the somewhat-soupy-somewhat-rock-solid dough and was perplexed(which was for the record, enough dough to make 500 very small cookies.  Not a ton, but still a lot of dough.  I should also point out here that the soupy/rocky texture of the dough was not enough of an indication for me that something was seriously wrong, or wrong at all.).  It did not taste good.  It tasted like baking soda. Then like molasses.  Then like awful.

It was only after about 3 solid minutes of eating terrible dough that I realized the poor thing was missing 2 cups of various sugars.  Poor dough.
This is where I probably should have said “Hey, good try.  Pitch it, we’ll try again tomorrow.”  Nope.  I proceeded to pour in a cup of sugar and attempted to knead the dough by hand.
Seriously? Kneading cookie dough? The dough that you are supposed to “mix until just combined” always.  Yep. I kneaded it.  Then, when it still didn’t taste good, I remembered that I had in fact doubled the recipe.  Still I was not giving up.  Again with the sugar, again with the kneading.  Over and over, like a horror film for pastry chefs around the world.  It makes me cringe just thinking about it.  Alas, after about 20 minutes (and some tasty, albeit no-longer-soupy-and-extremely-solidified dough) I decided to call a fig a fig (this is a new saying I’m trying out—I just learned about it and, being a fig lover, am embracing it).

Here I like to pretend that I pitched the dough and called it quits.  Instead, I plastic wrapped the top of the bowl and put it in the fridge, because rock hard dough is always better in the morning.
Last night I pulled the dough out, tasted it, and was shocked that I didn’t chip my tooth.  It actually tasted alright, but I wasn’t about to meet 50 new relatives and pass out cookies and the number for a great dentist.

Still relentless, I let the dough cool, and made a new batch.  Perfection in a bowl is what it was.  Worlds beyond the crappy dough.  Worlds.  Finally,  Finally it was time to throw it away.
After thawing on my counter for about 4 hours, it dumped out of the bowl in one big hunk and didn’t even break when it hit the bottom of the garbage bag. Woof.

When done correctly, these cookies are incredible—truly a masterpiece in the cookie world.  The beauty of these cookies is 3-fold.  First, you can eat so many of them, so conveniently and sneakily, without any crumbs, and feel totally guiltless afterwards.  Second, one batch makes between 150-250 cookies, depending on how you size them, which makes them great for get-togethers, gifting, and other various giveaways.  Third, and probably most importantly, the flavor of these mini-morsels (yes, they’re that small) is so multi-faceted that it makes people’s heads spin.  It’s impossible for an amateur to identify all of the ingredients in these cookies (nearly impossible for me, as I forgot the sugar), and that’s what makes them so unique and tasty—people keep going back for more, sure that they can figure out what that hint of sweet or salty is.  Good thing the batch is big!

I’ve made these on several occasions, making tweaks along the way, and I finally have it down the way I want it.  This time, they are for the family reunion/union that I am going to this weekend in Tennessee.  I made a double batch, which left me with over 500 cookies and some aching legs and back.  This leads me to the downside of these delectable dots—you need to shape each cookie individually.  There will be no scooping and plopping.  Each cookie is rolled individually, shaped individually, and flattened individually.  The result is some cute-as-a-button cookies that are mouthwateringly good.

I’m still playing around with the name of these babies, especially because there are so many flavors in each bite.  I tried “chocolate, pecan, molasses bites,” but then that left out the cinnamon, which I believe is a hit.  Then I tried “cinnamon, chocolate, molasses nibs,” but then they sound muy sweet.  I’m settling on CinnaMinis for now, just because it’s cute and I like pun-ish things like that.

Just an FYI– in the pictures, I used regular granulated sugar for sprinkling on top, but the last few times I’ve used turbinado sugar to top them off.  Both are good, but I do prefer the graininess of the turbinado sugar.  Use what you like and if you don’t have turbinado it certainly won’t make-or-break your bitty bites.

CinnaMinis

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

½ c. whole wheat flour

½ c. flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cinnamon

¾ c. semi-sweet chocolate*,very finely chopped until it resembles shavings

1/3 c. pecans, very finely chopped

1 c. rolled oats

½ c. butter, softened

1 c. brown sugar

1 ½ tbsp. unsulphured molasses

1 egg

1 ½ tsp. vanilla

¼ c. turbinado sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, chocolate, pecans, and oats.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until fluffy.  Add brown sugar and continue to beat until lightened and fluffed.  Add molasses, followed by the egg and vanilla.

Pour dry ingredients in to wet ingredients and mix by hand just until a uniform dough is formed.

Scoop about ½ to ¼ teaspoon of dough and roll into ball using your hands.  Flatten dough balls and place on cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.  Bake in oven for 7-8 minutes.

Immediately after removing cookies from oven, sprinkle cookies with turbinado sugar (or granulated sugar, if you wish).  Allow to cool for 2 minutes before moving to wire cooling rack.

* I like to use mini chocolate chips, because they are easy to chop and are already pretty small, but experiment with different chocolates and higher quality chocolates at that!

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