Grated Jam Bars: Easy Shortcrust Pie with Blackcurrant Jam
I don't know why, but as a kid I divided store-bought cookies into three kinds: shortbread, hard biscuits, and fruit gingerbread. Gingerbread was something special, it went great with milk fresh from the cow.
I didn't even notice that the gingerbread wasn't exactly fresh anymore. Hard biscuits I didn't like at all: how could anyone eat a “plank” of almost unsweetened, tasteless dough?
But shortbread cookies, now those were popular. Especially spread with honey or jam! I'm sure the traitor boy in the old Soviet fairy tale about the military secret, the one bribed with a barrel of jam and a basket of cookies, got shortbread cookies with his jam. I can still picture that barrel of jam and those Viennese cookies! I wonder what kind of jam he got. Not raspberry, surely, it has seeds. I'm judging by myself here. For us, the height of fashion was sweet cherry, blackcurrant or plum jam.
As a grown-up I discovered a wonderful version of that same “barrel of jam and basket of cookies”: a pie, or cookie bars, made of shortcrust pastry with blackcurrant jam. Apple sharlotka is an option too, but this grated pie is something else!
Shortcrust pastry is probably the simplest dough you can make quickly. It's fairly firm, doesn't stick to your hands, and bakes fast. Let's bake a jam pie.
Ingredients
4 servings
- Flour 4 cups
- Butter 200 g
- Vanillin 1-2 g
- Eggs 2
- Sugar 1 cup (180 g)
- Baking powder ½ packet
- Blackcurrant jam 1 cup
Step-by-step recipe
- How do you make grated jam bars? Soften the butter a little: soften it, don't melt it. Leave it at room temperature in the kitchen, or cut it into pieces and microwave for 10-15 seconds. It may start to run slightly on the surface. Mash it with a fork and it will turn creamy.
- Mix the butter, vanillin and sugar. A mixer makes this easy. You'll get a creamy mixture.
- Add the eggs and mix again.
- Be sure to sift the flour so there are no lumps or stray whole grains. Mix the sifted flour with half a packet of baking powder. Note: set aside ½ cup of the flour. You'll need it later.
- Add 3½ cups of flour to the butter and sugar mixture. Knead the dough thoroughly. If your mixer comes with spiral dough hooks, the job is as easy as it gets.
- If you did everything right, the dough will be elastic and firm and won't stick to the dough hooks or your hands.
- They say shortcrust pastry should rest in the cold for a while. I don't know, I haven't tried. We use it without chilling, and the pie turns out delicious.
- Divide the dough into two parts, roughly in a 4:3 ratio.
- Leave the larger part as it is, and knead the remaining ½ cup of flour into the smaller part until smooth.
- Line a baking sheet (about 30-35 cm) with parchment or baking paper. Put the larger piece of dough on the paper and, with dry hands, stretch it into a thin layer that covers the whole sheet. The dough shouldn't be thicker than 15 mm. And of course, don't make it too thin either.
- Next, open a jar of homemade blackcurrant jam. Taste it, of course, there's no skipping that. Then spread all the jam over the dough.
- Don't worry, it won't be too much. You'll probably run short, if anything. Just kidding. It'll be just right.
- Now roll the second part of the dough into a ball. Take an ordinary grater with large holes and do what gave this pie its name: grate the dough and sprinkle it over the jam in an even layer.
- And that's it. All the hard work is behind you, time to bake.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C and bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Cut the baked pie into diamonds with a sharp knife. Big or small, it's up to you. After cutting, let it cool so the jam sets a little and doesn't run.
- What you end up with is two in one: those very Viennese cookies with jam, in the form of a grated pie.
- These shortcrust bars with blackcurrant jam are insanely good with black tea or warm milk.
| Serves: | 4 servings |
| Calories: | 390 |
| Prep: | 30 mins |
| Cook: | 40 mins |
| Total: | 1 h 10 mins |
| Category: | Baking |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.9
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