Apricot-Orange Bars
Apricot-Orange Shortbread Bars (Adapted from Julie Hasson's recipe in Bon Appetit)
Servings 30
Ingredients
- 1 cup apricot preserves
- 3 tablespoons orange liqueur (Grand Marnier) or orange juice.
- ¼ cup almond paste (from 7-ounce roll), crumbled (50 grams)
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (230 grams)
- ¾ cup sugar (150 grams)
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (weigh or measure with a light hand) (260 grams)
- ½ cup sliced or slivered almonds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. F. Line a 9x9 inch pan with parchment paper. For thinner bars you can use a slightly larger pan if you have one.
- Combine preserves and Grand Marnier (or orange juice). Set aside.
- In a small to medium size mixing bowl, crumble up almond paste and set that aside as well.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together softened butter, sugar and almond extract. Stir in the salt, followed by the flour.
- Scoop out 1 cup of the flour mixture and add to the bowl with almond paste. Mix this together to form topping. Add the almonds.
- Press remaining flour mixture into bottom of lined pan. Spread apricot/orange mixture over top. Crumble flour/almond paste/almond mixture over filling. At this point you may want to sprinkle more almonds on top as well (optional).
- Bake for about 1 hour at 325 degrees F. Let cool completely, then carefully lift from pan and place on a cutting board.
- Cut into bars. You can make them as big or small as you like.