Nothing Says 'I Love You' like Chocolate Raspberry Bars

I'm going to preface this blog post with an 'I'm sorry".  The reason I feel compelled to make this disclaimer is because these chocolate raspberry bars are awesome.  I'm talking "can't stop eating them, don't care if I become obese, sort of want to shrink myself to a miniature size and live in a giant box of these" good.   Now I like to think that my husband married me for many reasons, however I think the main reason was for my food.  Since this was our first Valentines day as a married couple, and we are broke and about to move, I wanted to find a way to say 'I love you' that was a littler more elaborate than our traditional Valentine's day breakfast, but that didn't involve spending any money.

Enter Melissa Clark. For those of you not acquainted, Melissa Clark is a food writer for the NY Times who writes an incredible column called A Good Appetite.  She always managed to make food that looks incredibly fancy and elegant and yet is so simple and easy to make at home without a ton of weird ingredients.  A few weeks ago she posted a recipe for dark chocolate cherry ganache bars which I absolutely HAD to try.  The only change I made was substituting cherry jam for raspberry jam, mainly because we still have jam left over from our wedding favors (how cute am I using our wedding jam in our valentines day dessert, and yes its ok to vomit at our cuteness) and I substituted raspberry vodka for the kirsch.  The result was devine!  The perfect treat for snuggling up with your special someone, just ask Marley!

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Bars (adapted from Melissa Clark)

150 grams all-purpose flour (about 1 1/2 cups)

90 grams confectioners’ sugar (about 3/4 cup)

26 grams unsweetened cocoa powder (about 1/4 cup)

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

12 tablespoons cold salted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

52 grams rasberry jam (about 2 tablespoons but to be honest I didn't measure, I just used enough to cover the shortbread)

340 grams bittersweet chocolate, at least 62 percent, chopped (12 ounces)

2/3 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons raspberry vodka 

1. In a food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and fine sea salt. Pulse in the butter and vanilla until the mixture just comes together into a smooth mass. You can also do this by hand by using your finger tips to work in the very cold butter. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment or wax paper. Press the dough into the pan. Prick all over with a fork. Chill for at least 20 minutes and up to 3 days.

2. Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake the shortbread until firm to the touch and just beginning to pull away from the sides, 35 to 40 minutes.

3. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes on a wire rack. Brush jam over shortbread’s surface and let cool thoroughly.

4. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl.

5.  In a saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Pour over the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the vodka. Spread over shortbread.  Cool to room temperature; cover and chill until firm. Slice and serve.

Pictures are courtesy of James Martin - using the camera he broke at our wedding just to bring these cookies full circle :-)