Рецепт: черничные пирожные с джемом и песочным тестом

I chuckled a little to myself putting this recipe together. I seem to have an unintentional theme going this summer: salads and cookie bars. Last month we covered chicken salad, cowboy caviar and s’mores cookie bars. August is shaping up with a few more recipes for those categories. The fresh corn salad (one of my all-time favorite recipes) from last week and today: blackberry jam crumb bars. What can I say, I like what I like. Really, it comes down to the ease of feeding a crowd with one pleasing dish, whether its dinner, a lunch on the go or a sweet treat. This week’s recipe is delightfully easy to make and endlessly versatile. Right out the gate, if blackberries aren’t your thing, swap in your favorite jam and fruit and run with it. I have two blackberry bushes growing alongside my garden and I look forward to their sweet juicy berries all summer long. Finally, in the dog days of August, they are pumping out berries on the daily. In the mornings, as I wander the garden checking for tomatoes and carrots and pulling a few weeds, a small handful of perfectly ripe blackberries, warmed just a little in the early sunshine, is the perfect pre-breakfast treat to go along with my coffee. With purple stained fingers and an empty coffee cup, I made my way back to the house, mulling over how to incorporate blackberries into everything I make for the next few weeks. It seems like a small tragedy to let even a handful go to the birds. Eventually, this sweet little recipe came to mind, a riff on a favorite cookie bar I make during the holidays. These easy jam bars have a shortbread base, which means the cookie part is buttery, rich and delicate. I splurged on a lovely jar of homemade blackberry preserves but any favorite jam (an especially homemade) will work just fine for this recipe. The final step is a scattering of fresh blackberries across the top of the bars. As they bake, the berries melt and pool a bit, making for the perfect sweet-tart bite. In years past, I’ve made blueberry and raspberry versions of this recipe and every time, they are gobbled right up. Enjoy! Blackberry Jam Crumb Bars • 1 cup cold salted butter, cut into small cubes • 1/2 cup granulated sugar • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • 2 cups all-purpose flour • 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt • 1/2 cup favorite blackberry preserves • 1/2 cup fresh blackberries • 1 tablespoon raw sugar Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside for later. In a large bowl, combine the cubed COLD butter, sugar, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour and salt. Give the mixture a quick stir to combine. Then, using a pastry knife or a hand-mixer, combine the ingredients until a crumbly dough beings to form. The dough should have pea-size pieces of butter throughout. You are done mixing when the dough still seems shaggy but when you smoosh it with (clean) hands, it holds together. Press two-thirds of the dough into an even layer in the parchment-lined pan. Spread the blackberry preserves over the dough layer and then crumble the remaining dough over the jam. Dot the bars evenly with fresh blackberries. Bake on the center rack of the oven for about 30 minutes (maybe a tiny bit longer if you use lots of blackberries). The bars are done when the top is golden brown and the jam bubbles along the edges. Remove from oven and let them cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes. Lift the parchment paper out of the pan and transfer the bars to a cooling rack, allowing them to completely cool before cutting into squares. Recipe makes 16 square bars.