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Rich Raisin Squares-Christmas Baking Continues

Fig.1. Soft, buttery crust, moist, sticky center, and a firm, caramelized sugar top. The raisins, which represent the healthy portion of this recipe, are in there somewhere. You might have to play with the oven time to get them right--keep an eye on them during the last five minutes of cooking time.

These raisin treats not only make great squares, they also make for a great dessert. They are on the sweet side (think sugar pie with raisins) so a tart coulis, jam, or unsweetened whipped cream gives it just the balance it needs to prevent your guests from opening your fridge and downing the entire milk carton. The raisins also provide your inner-granola with the notion that you’re getting something healthy amidst the heaping amounts of flour, sugar and corn syrup.

Rich Raisin Squares

Ingredients:

1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
¼ cup brown sugar, well packed
½ cup softened butter
1 cup raisins, rinsed
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
½ cup corn syrup
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees on bake.
In a bowl, mix ¾ cup of the flour, brown sugar and butter, mix until crumbly. Pack mixture into the bottom of a 9 inch, round cake pan, press mixture evenly into pan. (If mixture sticks to your fingers, use a little flour.) Bake for 15 minutes. While the crust bakes, whisk the eggs and sugar together, stir in the corn syrup, remaining ¼ cup flour, salt, vanilla, and raisins. Spread raisin mixture evenly over crust and return to 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Let cool for five minutes, pass a sharp knife around the edge in order to facilitate removal. Once completely cooled, freeze and cut into squares. Refreeze squares for future use, or, if serving as a dessert, keep in fridge, but let come to room temperature before serving.