Two Yummies

Two of my favorite things here for your viewing pleasure. First, I finished the baby gift for my friend Michelle's soon to arrive little boy. I do need to sew in the zipper. . . Tomorrow I shall tackle it, promise. I am nervous about how to install the zipper but I'll do it right away in the morning. I am very happy with how the hoodie turned out and am anxious to make one for Hugo. I had him try it on just to get an idea of how it might look. He complained a lot but it looked very sweet on him, and small. Gifts come first, no Hugo knitting for awhile - I have to remind myself daily of this. My second favorite thing to share are these Raspberry Streusel Bars. Yum, yum rich! Almost overly so, small, bite-size squares are all you need. I found the recipe on the Food Network courtesy of Mondavi from the show Cooking Live.

For the base:
3 cups flour
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped, blanched hazelnuts (I will double this next time, I used walnuts)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound unsalted butter, cold and cubed
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Process all ingredients in food processor until they begin to hold together. Pour into sheet pan and press evenly into bottom of pan. Bake until golden brown (about 20 to 25 minutes). Take out and cool for at least 15 mi

For the filling and Streusel:
2 (12 ounce) jars raspberry jam (I used a 32oz jar - all of it)
20 ounces flour
20 ounces unsalted butter
16 ounces sugar

Spread the raspberry jam evenly over the baked crust. Combine the flour, butter and sugar in a mixer or food processor and mix until crumbly. Sprinkle over the top of the jam and return to oven. Bake until streusel is golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Drizzle:
4 ounces white chocolate
4 ounces semisweet chocolate

Melt each chocolate separately and place in a pastry bag or plastic bag with a corner cut off and drizzle over the cooled raspberry bars.

*I waited and waited for my top layer of streusel to turn a golden brown but it never happened. It left me wondering if the oven temp should have been increased? I don't know. I do know that my lovely and crumbly streusel topping melted into a flat, flat layer. I used paper towel to sop up some of the extra butter pooling on top. Yuck. For my taste these need to be served cold. Last night I put the remaining bars in the freezer to keep. Tonight I had a craving and raided the freezer. They were delicious.