Friday, April 24, 2009

Benedict Bars

I’ve been reading the Baker and Spice books Exceptional Cakes and Exceptional Breads, and I may end up making every item found in both books. Everything looks unbelievably good. I linked those titles to Amazon, but the Cakes book is unfortunately, currently unavailable. Baker and Spice shops are located in London and were founded on the principle of hand-made baking with traditional ingredients and methods. They rely on best-quality ingredients and careful baking techniques to achieve incredible goods that are not masked through decoration in any way. I like that approach, and the first item I had to try was the Benedict bar with a crunchy almond topping. My first question was why is this called a Benedict bar? There’s a note in the book explaining that the name comes from the South African Benedict cake which has similar flavors. I didn’t find any information online about this cake, so if anyone can tell me about it, I’m wondering what it’s like.

The recipes in these books are written with metric measurements by weight, and rather than doing conversions I used my kitchen scale set to grams. Now that I have that scale, I don’t know how I lived without it for so long. I did need some help in converting the Celsius oven temperature to Fahrenheit, and for that I used my handy Food Lover's Companion. This simple cookie bar started with a shortbread base. Interestingly, the shortbread ingredients included some corn flour which I luckily had in my bin of random flours. Other than that, it was a straightforward shortbread recipe with butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla. This was pressed into the bottom of an eight-inch square pan and chilled while the topping was made. The topping was made by melting butter with sugar, vanilla, a little milk, and sliced almonds. The chilled shortbread in the pan was topped with a layer of what was supposed to have been raspberry jam but in this case was black currant jelly, and then the topping was poured over it. This went into the oven for 30 minutes and smelled fantastic as it baked.

I let the pan cool and then placed it in the refrigerator to make it easier to cut into bars. This is a rare time when I think I will enjoy a cookie-type item better in its chilled state. The jelly layer is delicious when cold, and the topping and shortbread can do no wrong at any temperature. I would try to go on and on about the crunchy, nutty top, the fruity, sweet middle, and buttery, rich foundation of it all, but I’m running back to the kitchen to eat another one instead.


UPDATE:
Since the book is not available, and I had a request for the recipe, I'm including it below.

Benedict Bar
First prepare the shortbread crust:
150 g unsalted butter
225 g plain flour (All purpose flour)
4 T corn flour
1/2 t baking powder
125 caster sugar (granulated sugar) + more for sprinkling into pan
1/4 t sea salt
1 t vanilla extract

-spray a 24 x 20cm (I used an eight inch square pan, but slightly larger would also work) with cooking spray and sprinkle with sugar
-dice the butter straight from the refrigerator into a mixing bowl and leave to soften for 30 minutes; sift the flour, cornflour, and baking powder on top, then add the sugar, salt, and vanilla; rub together between your fingertips until the mixtures begins to cohere (Or, place in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix with the paddle attachment until it resembles breadcrumbs.)
-press into the prepared pan and chill in the refrigerator while making the topping

Bars:
100g unsalted butter
60g caster sugar (granulated sugar)
1 t vanilla extract
200g flaked almonds
3 T milk
raspberry jam (or blackcurrant jelly or whatever jam or jelly you have)

-preheat oven to 180 degrees C or 350 degrees F [Here's a handy conversion tool: http://www.metric-conversions.org/temperature/celsius-to-fahrenheit.htm]
- put butter, sugar, vanilla, almonds, and milk in a small saucepan over low heat, and warm until the butter melts; remove from heat and allow to cool
-remove shortbread from refrigerator and spread a layer of jam on top; pour cooled, melted butter mixture over top; bake for 25 to 30 minutes and then allow to cool on a rack; chill in the refrigerator for one hour to make cutting easier

35 comments:

  1. dang.....this is an exceptional looking treat....I can totally imagine biting into one of these....

    ReplyDelete
  2. This bar sounds excellent with the black current jelly and the crunchy almonds. I am curious about the name. Please let us know if you find out about the origin of it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mmmm. The only problem is that you cut them so small. Guess we have to eat more to make up for that. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yum - they look fantastic! I'm a scientist so I weight everything in the kitchen - I just can't help myself!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi, thanks for visiting my blog.

    These bars look so yummy and I love almonds.

    I look forward to reading from you. =)

    ReplyDelete
  6. A sweet, thick jammy filling topped with crunchy, thin slivers of almonds. That's a recipe for deliciousness in my book.

    ReplyDelete
  7. delicious combi of currant jelly & almonds!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That jelly layer looks oooooh amazing! I love almonds too. Great dessert.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very yummy looking. Did you get the blackcurrant jelly there or bring it back with you from Dublin?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've been craving shortbread lately and I think that top photo just put me over the edge :) What a delicious-sounding bar.

    ReplyDelete
  11. MMMMM...Lias! I love them! Beautiful pictures again! Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Lisa, I can not resist this delicious looking bars. I really want to make it too.
    Cheers,
    elra

    ReplyDelete
  13. The words lovely and divine come to mind! I can picture them on a fancy tray with a steaming pot of tea next to them in a tea house! Scrumptious!

    ReplyDelete
  14. i still haven't gotten a scale, but it's on my list. these bars look delish! i've never heard of them!

    ReplyDelete
  15. These are amazing! I love the almonds here and the bite size shapes.YUM!

    ReplyDelete
  16. They are really exceptionally goood! My hubby saw your picture, he loves almond and asked if I can also make them : ) Have to wait the book become available !

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yum, that looks sinfully delicious!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I love blackcurrant jelly and I love almond. So, these bars are my size.
    Delicious indeed !!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. wow...these look very nice and crunchy and chewy at the same time! If I don't have sliced almonds, will chopped work as well?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Janet: I'm going to update the post with the recipe since the book isn't available.

    Sophia: Chopped almonds should work, but I think the smaller the chopped size the better so the pieces combine well with the melted butter and sugar.

    ReplyDelete
  21. The combination sounds amazing. I think I would use the blackcurrant jam, for its somewhat tart flavor. I love it!

    ReplyDelete
  22. ooh! those look delicious. My mouth is watering just from looking at the photograph.

    ReplyDelete
  23. what a gorgeous bar! the crust actually looks smooth and creamy, which would be an excellent contrast to the crunchy almond topping. and who among us can resist sweet raspberry jam? not this gal. :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. These look SO good. I still have a ton of sliced almonds that I need to use up, I am definitely going to make them.

    ReplyDelete
  25. In my case, it's called 'Benedict' because I'd be betraying my well-intentioned eating by overindulging in these little beauties!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Oh, I love these bars too! Have already made them several times, since seeing the recipe in that book :)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Never heard of these before. I also want to know how it got that name. Interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  28. That makes me hungry! They look delicious :)

    ReplyDelete
  29. Out of curiousity, did you ever try making these with marmalade? And if so, how much did you increase the sugar by?

    ReplyDelete
  30. Allie: Sorry, no, I haven't tried these with marmalade. Great idea though. If I recall, this is a nicely sweet cookie and might not require much additional sugar.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Very interesting and easy to prepare recipe.
    I live in Romania and I have a blog "CAIETUL CU RETETE" that collect interesting recipes.
    Once I try it, post it on another my blog “PASIUNI”.
    I ask permission to post this recipe, translated in Romanian, on my blog " CAIETUL CU RETETE ", and the link to your blog "lisa is cooking".
    Have a nice day
    Bucharest, Romania
    Geta

    ReplyDelete
  32. Thank you for your comment and for visiting my blog. Yes, you may post the recipe with a link back to my blog. Hope you enjoy the benedict bars!

    ReplyDelete
  33. Thank you very much!
    Recipe is here: http://geta-caietulcuretete.blogspot.com/2010/03/batoane-benedict.html
    And Mint Chocolate Brownie Bars : http://geta-caietulcuretete.blogspot.com/2010/03/brownies-cu-ciocolata-si-menta.html
    Again thanks!
    Good night!
    Geta

    ReplyDelete

Blogging tips