I don’t know how, but it is October already. Something has changed in the air and we seem to be settling in for winter. This morning, I unpacked my scarves from their vacuum bag and got out my winter coat, ready to be taken to the dry cleaners. I turned on the heating. I started thinking about Hallowe’en.
I have had a punnet of raspberries in my fridge that have been there since before I went to Germany. Despite expecting to have to throw them away on my return, they survived remarkably well. If I’m honest, I can’t believe I risked letting them go to waste; raspberry season is quickly coming to an end, and it will be a long time before fresh British raspberries will be available again.
I could have just tipped them into a bowl and eaten them with a little icing sugar and a lot of creme fraiche, but instead I decided to bake something with them. I swore off cake after eating so much of it in Baden-Baden, but there is something about the new chill in the air that makes me want to nest; and baking is always the biggest part of that need. Raspberries always work so well in baking; their sharp flavour cuts through all of the butter and sugar and makes everything just a little less sweet.
My favourite combination is a classic one: raspberry and almond. The world probably does not need another raspberry-almond recipe, but I am just going to squeeze this last one in. These raspberry-almond bars are based loosely on Dan Lepard’s Blueberry Almond Bars from his book Short and Sweet – he suggests that you can use blackberries instead of blueberries, which is where I got the idea. The base is a dense cake, almost biscuit-like, topped first with a raspberry jam, thickened with cornflour, and then with a brown sugar-almond crust. The result is more biscuit than cake and lends itself to being sliced up and eaten with a strong cup of tea. Once the raspberries have gone completely, I am going to try this with a plum jam and a hazelnut crust.
Raspberry-Almond Bars
125g caster sugar
150g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
50g ground almonds
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
180g punnet fresh raspberries
2 tsp cornflour
50ml whole milk
2 tsp honey
100g light brown sugar
100g flaked almonds
Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Spray a 20cm x 20cm square cake tin with cake release spray (I use Dr Oetker’s).
Mix together 75g of the caster sugar, the plain flour, baking powder and ground almonds in a large bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and rub into the mixture. Add the egg and bring the mixture together in a soft dough. Press this evenly into the bottom of the prepared cake tin and set aside.
In a small pan, combine the raspberries, cornflour, the remaining 50g caster sugar and 100ml of water. Cook over a medium heat, stirring, until the raspberries have broken down and the mixture thickens. Set aside.
In a separate pan, combine the milk, honey, brown sugar and flaked almonds and simmer over a medium heat until thickened.
Spread the raspberries over the base layer (you probably won’t need all of it), then top evenly with the almond mixture. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes until browned. Leave to cool completely in the tin and then cut into slices.
The Boozy Rouge 