Apricot Tahini Shortbread Bars

Amarante

Thu, Dec 14 2023, 12:34 pm

I had bought some not great for just eating plums so wanted to use them up. Per the recipe notes, I subbed plums for the apricots and it worked well. Notes indicate you could use preserves.

Tahini in baked products is quite good - a bit reminiscent of using peanut butter.

You can use the solid coconut butter but if you want pareve I would probably opt for a really good vegan butter like Miyokos Cultured Vegan Butter

APRICOT TAHINI SHORTBREAD BARS

Excerpt From: Adeena Sussman - Shabbat

I took a classic Israeli recipe for crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth tahini cookies and turned it into a shortbread-like base for ripe, juicy apricots—the kind you would eat out of hand but that might make it into jam if they sat on the counter for another day or two. Ideally, the fruit should slump into the crust, baking to silky softness so that you can bite straight through on the way to the crunchy-nutty crust.

Makes 16 squares
Active Time:
15 minutes
Total Time (including chilling and cooling time):
2 hours
½ cup (1 stick/4 ounces/114 grams) unsalted butter, softened, or ½ cup (4 ounces/114 grams) coconut oil in solid form, at room temperature, plus more for greasing the pan
⅔ cup (133 grams) granulated sugar
¾ cup (188 grams) pure tahini paste, stirred
½ teaspoon (2 grams/ml) pure vanilla extract
“2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons (8 grams) baking powder
½ teaspoon (3 grams) fine sea salt
10 ripe medium apricots, pitted and halved, or 8 very ripe small plums, pitted and quartered*
2 tablespoons (25 grams) demerara sugar, such as Sugar in the Raw

*If ripe fruit isn’t in season, spread 1 cup apricot or plum preserves over the top and bake as directed.

Grease a 9-inch square baking pan with butter. Line the pan with 2 crisscrossing strips of parchment paper, greasing between each layer and leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the granulated sugar, tahini, butter, and vanilla and beat on medium speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary, until fully incorporated and slightly fluffy, about 2 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt, add it to the butter mixture, and beat on medium-low speed just until fully incorporated and slightly crumbly, 30 seconds.

Press the dough into the pan and chill for 30 minutes. During the last 15 minutes of chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Arrange the apricots, cut side up, on top of the dough (they can overlap if necessary), sprinkle with the demerara sugar, and bake until the edges of the dough are golden and the apricots are slumped and softened, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool completely, about 1 hour, and cut into 16 squares.