Raspberry Jam Bars. These delicious oatmeal raspberry bars are something which I originally baked on the blog back in 2010, eleven years ago. I actually had not baked them since then! Hard to believe because they are incredibly delicious!
I wanted to bake my father a lush treat for Easter that I knew he would enjoy. He loves "jam" anything and there was a jar of raspberry jam in the fridge that needed using up so now was the perfect time to bake them.
Also my original photos are not very good. I didn't know a lot about food photography back then. I still don't but I wanted to redo my old photos and update the recipe a bit, so I hope you will humor me and enjoy this redo!
Don't you just love this cute Salt and Pepper Set? A bear and his honey pot!
It is a part of my sister's collection that she has for sale on Lost Lovelies Found. They are so cute. She has a wonderful eye for collectables.
The set consists of a little honey bee hive, decorated with ladybugs and this sweet little bear. He also had a ladybug on his cute little nose. They join together with magnets at the side, and are stamped Japan on the bottom.
So cute. Almost as cute as these lush bars. After baking these yesterday I couldn't understand why I had waited so long to bake them again.
With their moreish buttery oat and almond crust and topping, they are really very simple and quick to make. The hardest part is waiting for them to cool long enough so that you can cut them into squares!
They are a real favourite of my friend Monique's also. She has baked them many times since I first posted the recipe, always to accolades.
You don't have to cut them into squares of course. You can use metal cookie cutters to cut them into rounds, or diamonds or whatever shape you wish to cut the into.
This raspberry bars recipe is so easy to make and goes together in a flash. You don't need fresh berries for it, just raspberry jam.
You can have all the prep work done for them in 10 minutes. It doesn't get much easier than that. Easy peasy lemon squeezy as they say! (whoever "they" are!)
Perfect little buttery bites, filled with crunchy oats and toasted almonds, and sweet raspberry jam. A delicious two bite snack, perfection . . . in every way.
The crust/topping is simply butter beaten until light and fluffy with some soft brown sugar. Once you have that done you beat in a bit of vanilla.
Flour and soda come next. I like to sift the two together so that they are evenly mixed. There is also only a pinch of salt.
Finally you stir in a quantity of oats and flaked almonds. I use the large flake old fashioned oats for a wonderfully texture and wholesomeness.
Do NOT use instant oats. They will not give you the correct consistency and your results when baked will not be the same.
Flaked almonds are easily found in the baking section at the grocery store. I don't think any other kind of almond would work as well. I was thinking yesterday as I was making these that I am pretty sure chopped walnuts would also be very good.
Originally I made these with seedless raspberry jam. I have diverticulitis and I can't eat fruit seeds. All I had yesterday was the jam with the seeds in it.
That is what I used, which means I won't really be able to indulge in them myself, but that's okay because I really ought not to be indulging in these!
These would be really good cut into heart shapes as well and there would be less waste than using other cutters. You could top and tail them, next to each other as you cut them. Not sure I explained that correctly.
But the off cuttings are never a waste anyways, and someone always snuffles them up!
As I said before, the hardest part of these is the waiting for them to cool down long enough to cut. Hot jam isn't very pleasant either and it can really burn, so do be careful!
One bowl to mix them in. One pan to bake them in. Lined with foil, so that you can lift them out easily. And makes for a very easy clean up as well.
If you are not fond of raspberry jam, feel free to use any other kind you like. Blueberry jam would be awesome as would peach jam.
I can see these tasting exceptional as well using Strawberry jam or even rhubarb preserves. My taste buds are tingling just at the thought!
My father was in jam heaven when he had one of these after supper last night. He had one of these and a small bowl of ice cream. There was a twinkle in his eye.
He sure loves his jam, and I love him, so it was the perfect combination! Buttery, oaty-nutty, and with a nice jammy sweetness. Moreish to say the least.
Raspberry Jam Bars
Yield: 16
Prep time: 12 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 52 Min
Delicious little bite sized bars with a scrumptious buttery oaty base and topping and a sweet raspberry jam filling. Betcha can't eat just one.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (140g) flour
- pinch salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup (120g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla or almond extract
- 1/2 cup (50g) oats (not instant oats)
- 1/2 cup (50g ) sliced almonds
- 4 heaped dessertspoons of seedless raspberry jam
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F. Line an 8 inch square baking tin with aluminum foil, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the vanilla.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir this mixture into the creamed mixture. Stir in the oats and sliced almonds.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of this mixture and set it aside.
- Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Dollop the raspberry jam over top and spread it out with a rubber spatula to within 1/2 inch of the sides of the pan all around.
- Crumble the reserved oat mixture evenly over top.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the dough is golden brown and the jam is lightly bubbling. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Use the foil overhang to lift the baked mixture out of the pan. Cut into 16 squares with a sharp knife.
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Easter Chocolate Krispie Cakes are the perfect treat for the Easter Holidays. Quick and easy to make and using only a few ingredients. These chocolate krispie buns/cakes are a staple at pretty much every children's party over in the UK.
Chocolate rice krispie cakes without butter, no marshmallows and no added corn syrup. These are simple to make and to decorate, not to mention chocolate crunchy delicious!
Chocolate Krispie Cakes are something I had never heard of before moving over to the UK. I first saw them in the local bake shop. They were really posh krispie cakes, well decorated with sprinkles and edible baubles etc.
So pretty and they used to do them for every holiday according to whatever season it was. At Christmas they would have Christmas edibles decorating them and at Easter it would be Easter edibles.
Cute to look at and after a bit of investigating I discovered they were also very easy to make at home. Using only three ingredients not counting the decorations you use.
I have actually shown you these before, but I thought a bit of an update was due, so here we go. Better photos than my original ones and hopefully much more enticing words.
First I wanted to talk to you about this plate I have used to serve them on. I just love these plates. They are a part of an original dinner set that my mother bought for her mother (my grandmother) after she got her first job and was working in Truro in 1952.
Mom would have been just 20 years old. My grandmother never had many nice things. I just know the love that was behind this gift. My mother wanted her mother to have something pretty and not practical. Something just for her.
I just love this beautiful pattern, although I could not really tell you what it is called. It is marked on the bottom Sovereign Potteries Earthenware, along with the stamp Minto 877-47 It has gold around the edges.
I just love the colors of the pattern on it. I love Forget Me Nots and Roses anyways, so this is really very pretty to me. Only four plates remain of the original set, and my sister is taking very good care of them.
I was a bit afraid to use the plate in case I should scratch it or something, but whew! Thankfully I didn't! I don't remember my mother ever using these the whole time I was growing up, and I cannot remember how she came to be in possession of them.
I strongly suspect that after my grandmother passed away in 1960, and my Grandfather was set to remarry, my Aunt Freda squirreled them away lest the stepmom get her hands on them. That is probably also how the other pieces were broken.
Its a miracle that these four plates remain. My Grandmother had left for me a juice set with a jug and drinking glasses in an opalescent peach coloured carnival glass, which my Aunt also took into safe-keeping for me, but they all got broken through use.
C'est la vie.
I am really enjoying re-discovering these old pieces and learning more about them. I can only be grateful that they were never given to me for safekeeping or they would have long since been lost.
With the number of times I have been made homeless and lost everything in my lifetime, they surely would have been lost also. No, I have not had the best of luck in life I guess when it comes to choosing men, but that's a whole different story.
Back to the Krispie Cakes. These are so simple to make and as I said use only a very few ingredients. Two kinds of chocolate chips and Krispie Rice Cereal. That's it!
Other than what you choose to decorate them with. You simply melt the chocolates together and stir in the rice cereal. Easy easy.
This mixture then gets spooned into paper muffin cases in a bun/muffin tin. Once you have them in your tin then you can decorate them to your hearts content.
Today I used some candy covered chocolate eggs and cupcake sprinkles I bought from Sweetapolita, a Canadian cake decorating/baking supply company. They sell all sorts of things. I saw an advert on IG I believe for them, followed it and then fell in love with their sprinkles.
I purchased a few different kinds as well as a surprise bag of who knows what. And it really was a pleasant surprise. I was thrilled with their choices!
Everything came very nicely wrapped and they even threw in a emergency tube of sprinkles as a gift.
I had to leave all of my sprinkles and baking things behind in the UK, so I am gradually building them up again.
Its fun exploring Canadian options and building things up again. Fun to me anyways, because I am a foodie through and through and I love discovering new things.
I also wanted to tell you about this sweet egg cup I have used as a part of my display as well. It is from my sister's shop Lost Lovelies Found on Instagram. This piece is a sweet mid-century ceramic egg cup made in Japan in the 1950's.
My sister has the sweetest shop where she sells vintage collectables. She has an expert eye for these things and is a really talented curator of them, not to mention caretaker.
I sure love my sister. She is such a talented woman and so humble. I don't think she realizes just how very talented she is. She is an incredible artist as well and I am not just saying that. Its true. I am always telling her she needs to start an art page.
Don't these sprinkles look just darling on these cakes? Along with the little mini eggs of course. I love the bright Easter-like colours. The yellows, greens, pinks, etc.
Easter is all about brightness and hope and the awakening earth. I think these Easter Chocolate Krispie Cakes exemplify that perfectly.
These are so easy to make, you may even want the children to help you put them together. Certainly there is nothing that would harm them here, once the chocolate and the cereal are stirred together.
They could easily help you spoon the mixture into the bun cases and then decorate them with the eggs and sprinkles afterwards.
I absolutely love these cakes. They remind me of one of my favourite chocolate bars, the Nestle's Crunch Bar.
Chocolates and crisp rice cereal. Oh my, but that is an incredibly edibly delicious combination in my modest opinion.
I bet you can't eat just one of these. Yes, seriously, they are THAT good!
Happy Easter Weekend!!!
Easter Chocolate Krispie Cakes
Yield: Makes about 15
Cook time: 15 Mininactive time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 15 M
These are so easy to do and look so pretty when they are finished. I had long heard of Marshmallow Crispy Squares, but never these chocolate delights! What a sheltered life I have lived! I wish I had known about these when my children were growing up. They would have loved them!
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup (50g) milk chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup (50g) dark milk chocolate chips
- 3 cups (80g) crisp rice cereal
- Chocolate eggs and sprinkles to decorate
Instructions
- Put a pot with some water in the bottom of it on the stove and bring it to a simmer. Break the chocolate up into bits and place it into a glass bowl, large enough to sit over the simmering water. Cook and stir until melted. Take care not to let the water boil. Once the chocolate is all melted and smooth, carefully remove it from the heat and stir in the rice cereal.
- Line a bun tin with paper liners and spoon the chocolate cereal mixture in, dividing it equally amongst each cup. Place a few easter eggs on the top of each and set them aside to cool and set up. You can put them into the fridge to do this if you are in a hurry, but it may cause your chocolate to bloom. If you are a patient sort it really doesn't take that long for them to set up out of the fridge, perhaps not much more than an hour or so.
Have I got a fabulously tasty, easy cookie recipe to share with you today, and just in time for Easter as well. Fudgy Easter Egg Brownie Cookies!
This is a Betty Crocker brownie cookie recipe that I adapted from the Betty Crocker site. We just happened to have a box of brownie mix in the house and some candy coated mini-eggs so why not!
We also have a cookie-monster in the house that goes by the name of Dan. He loves his cookies! And I love baking cookies, so it is really a win/win situation!
This easy recipe results in a super fudgy-like brownie cookie that is filled with dark chocolate chunks and candy covered mini Easter eggs. What's not to love about that!!
From the minute I saw these cookies in an e-mail, I knew that they were something I wanted to bake. They looked super-easy to do and we had all of the ingredients in the house. It was the recipe for the perfect storm!
I am a lover of Easter goodies. There were only two times a year we got treats like this in our house when I was growing up. Christmas and Easter.
The rest of the year, goodies like this were totally verboten!
Easter in our house also meant we got to use our special Easter Mugs. We never got to drink from them at any other time of the year. I don't know what happened to them all, but my sister still has this one.
I am really loving seeing these old treasures again. My mother took really good care of most of them through the years and everything looks brand new. My sister is also a great caretaker of them.
Made in Japan, these mugs sported a bird whistle on the handle. We loved being allowed to drink our milk or juice from them on Easter morning. I can imagine we made quite a ruckus blowing the whistles!
We would also have been really hyped up with sugar. Candy was only something we got a few times a year as well. Halloween, Christmas and Easter, so we would have really eaten our fill!
We would have gotten a chocolate Easter bunny, some marshmallow filled candy eggs and then real eggs that my mother would have coloured for us the night before after we went to bed.
What a loving thing that was for my mother to do for us. She would painstakingly colour each egg with crayons from our crayon box. My favourite ones were the ones she used all the colours on so they ended up with multi-coloured stripes.
The eggs were never hard-boiled, always raw and we would get 3 or 4 of them apiece. They would be sitting at each of our places at the table when we got up on Easter morning, safely placed into our coloured melamine cereal bowls.
We each had our own colour.
We always had scrambled eggs for breakfast on Easter morning. Mom would pierce the ends of the coloured eggs with a darning needle and blow them out into a mixing bowl.
Sometimes she would let us help her. I can remember it making my cheeks ache from the exertion of blowing.
Once the eggs were all blown out she would scramble them for us in her shiny wear-ever aluminum skillet. That skillet still lives in my sister cupboard and is just as shiny as it ever was. See . . . a good steward.
Once the eggs were all blown out my mother would wash out any residue with some water and then string the empty coloured shells on a piece of yarn, tying it closed like a necklace. We would wear those eggs all day.
Our goal was always to see who could get to the end of the day with the most egg shells still intact. Oh what a picture we must have made with our chocolate covered faces and those coloured eggs hanging from our necks!
We were not spoiled by any stretch of the imagination. We would have gotten those few candies, and perhaps a new skipping rope and a container of bubbles to blow.
We were happy with it all, so much so that my heart is filled with warmth just thinking about those sweet Easter memories from my childhood.
Easter dinner was always a baked ham, that my mom would bake the night before so that it could be served cold and sliced. Always with mustard and mashed potatoes. Dessert would always be a lemon meringue pie, cold and jiggly from the fridge.
What are some of your Easter memories from your childhood? Were they any traditions that your family held to? Anything special that you only did at that time of year?
Oh how I wish we were not in a Covid Lockdown still. These fabulously fudgy chocolate cookies are something I would have dearly loved to bake for my grandchildren.
Rich, chewy, fudgy and stuffed full of lovely dark chocolate chunks and crushed mini eggs, I decorated the tops of each one with several more candy eggs prior to baking.
They are as simple to make as stirring a few ingredients together in a bowl, letting the batter sit and then rolling it into balls. If you can stir, then you can make these. Better yet, why not let the children help!
Build a new Easter Tradition of your own with them. Fudgy Easter Egg Brownie Cookies. They're a VERY good thing!
Easter Egg Brownie Cookies
Yield: 21
Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 11 Mininactive time: 5 MinTotal time: 36 Min
Cute, colourful, easy and delicious. Adapted from a recipe found on Betty Crocker, with a few additions.
Ingredients
- 1 box (18.3 oz/450g) fudge brownie mix
- 1/2 cup (120ml) butter, melted
- 1 TBS water
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 bag mini candy coated chocolate Easter Eggs (250g/about 1 1/2 cups)
- 2/3 cup (120g) dark chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Line several baking sheets with some baking paper. Set aside.
- Coarsely break up 1/2 cup (75g) of the Easter eggs.
- Whisk the brownie mix, broken eggs, chocolate chunks, egg, melted butter and water together in a bowl until well combined. Let sit for 15 minutes.
- Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Press three mini chocolate eggs into the centre of each.
- Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the edges are just set. (The middles should appear slightly wet.) Leave to cool on the sheets for about 5 minutes before scooping off onto cooling racks.
- Leave to cool completely, about half an hour. Store in an airtight container.
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Salt & Pepper Chicken. The first time I tasted Salt & Pepper Chicken Wings was when I was in the UK. I adore Chinese food and probably about once a month we would order a Chinese meal from one of the local takeaway places.
Chinese food in the UK was quite different than what I had been used to eating back home in Canada. They didn't have the normal Chicken Wings I was used to. Always my favorite part of the Chinese Buffet we used to go to pre-Pandemic.
What is it about chicken wings that we all love so much? I mean, there is very little meat on them. They are mostly bone, but my oh my, they have an incredibly moreish quality to them that everyone can't get enough of!
Years and years ago when my children were quite young I used to be able to buy huge packs of chicken wings at the grocery store for about $2. Nobody wanted them. It was a cheap way to feed my family chicken and we all loved them.
With five hungry birds in the nest they were a deliciously cheap and cheerful way to feed them. I would just throw them into a large roasting tin, season them with some salt, pepper and summer savory and then bake them until they were crisp and golden brown.
DEEELICIOUS!
My sister cooks chicken wings in shake and bake every second week or so for my father as he loves them. They are so expensive now. We only get about 12 wings for $10. Mucho dineros for what amounts to a small amount of meat and bone. But yes, very tasty.
So what does that have to do with Salt & Pepper Chicken? Not a lot really. I found myself craving the salt and pepper chicken wings from the UK, but didn't want to spend a whole lot of money buying wings right now, so I decided to adapt my recipe to using chicken breast strips instead of wings.
The recipe I am sharing today is a play on those, albeit a tad bit healthier for sure. There is none of the fat and skin, but that doesn't mean that they are not delicious. Who says you need to have skin and fat for something to be delicious!
Boneless, skinless chicken breast meat is cut into strips and rolled in some soy sauce. I like dark soy sauce myself, but you can use whatever kind you prefer.
Once they are coated in the soy sauce, I roll them in a special spice mixture I have thrown together. Montreal steak spice, black pepper and lemon pepper. Yes, they are peppery for sure, but that is the charm of salt and pepper chicken.
I know that lemon pepper seasoning can bee very difficult to find in the UK. At least I could never find it. I soon learned how to make my own. It is very easy to make and I think, even better than the ready made stuff you find.
Make Your Own Lemon Pepper Seasoning:
Zest 5 whole lemons using a fine micro-plane zester and mix the zest together with 1/3 cup of black peppercorns and peppercorn medley. Spread out on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake until dried out on the very lowest setting of your oven.
Stir every so often. (Mine takes about an hour.) Grind this mixture to the texture of fine bread crumbs in a spice grinder, and then stir in 1/4 cup fine sea salt. Mix well together. Store in an airtight container out of the light for up to six months.
Once you have your chicken rolled in the spice mixture it is a simple matter of laying the strips out on a foil lined baking sheet. I like to spray it with some low fat cooking spray.
Then you just bake it. Eight minutes on one side, flip the pieces over, and then four to six minutes on the other side. Easy peasy.
Perfectly cooked, delicious strips of chicken. Not dry in the least. Succulent and well flavoured.
Spicy and delicious. Yes, even finger lickingly tasty good. But that's not all I do . . .
While the chicken is baking in the oven I put together a lush sweet and sour sauce for dipping them in.
This more than makes up for the lack of skin and fat in the chicken itself. Its also very easy to make. As you know I love easy things.
And chicken with a dipping sauce is one of my very favorite things to eat. Isn't it yours? This is such a simple sauce.
You will find yourself making it and enjoying it with all sorts, not just these tasty Salt & Pepper Chicken Strips. It goes with chicken nuggets, breaded chicken fingers, katsu style chicken cutlets, and all sorts.
I dare say it even goes well with fish fingers. Shhh . . . don't tell anyone.
Making the sauce is a simple matter of blitzing together a few simple ingredients. Nothing too out of the ordinary.
Apricot jam. I like Bonne Maman. It has plenty of lovely bits of fruit in it. As well I add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, tomato ketchup and some Worcestershire sauce.
Simple ingredients. Just stir them together and then blitz to a smooth sauce. I use my immersion blender, but you can use a mini food processor as well, or even a regular sized blender.
I just find that the immersion blender does a great job of it and it is a lot easier to clean up afterwards. To be honest I hardly ever use a full sized blender any more.
The immersion blender is so much easier to use and clean, and does a wonderful job on things like this.
There is no need to cook the sauce. Just pop it into little dipping pots and onto plates, ready for your family to dip their scrumptious chicken strips into.
Oh my, but this is some tasty. Served with some steamed basmati rice, with a garnish of a few scallions, it always goes down a real treat.
All the tastiness of salt and pepper wings, with half the fat and calories, and a tasty sauce to boot. This be good eating, plain and simple and most delicious! No gfooling!
Salt & Pepper Chicken
Yield: 4
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 25 Min
Spicy chicken strips served with a lush sweet and sour sauce. Very easy to make and oh so delicious! Finger licking good!
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 900g boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into strips (2 pounds)
- 2 TBS soy sauce
- 2 tsp Montreal Steak Spice
- 1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
For the sauce:
- 235g of apricot preserves (3/4 cup)
- 3 TBS soy sauce
- 3 TBS tomato ketchup
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Spray a foil lined baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the soy sauce into a bowl. Combine the spices and seasonings in a plastic bag.
- Roll the chicken strips in the soy sauce and then shake them in the plastic bag to coat with the seasonings.
- Place in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, flip over and bake for a further 5 to 6 minutes, or until the juices run clear, and they are golden brown.
- While the chicken is cooking, put all of the sauce ingredients into a deep wide mouthed jar and blitz with a stick blender, or alternatively blitz together in a regular blender/food processor until smooth.
- Serve the chicken strips hot with the dipping sauce.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com. Follow my blog with Bloglovin
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