Tag Archives: bar cookie recipe

Saba Jam Will Definitely Be Your Jam

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Saba Jam's Fig Ume Plum Jam stars in these bar cookies.
Saba Jam’s Fig Ume Plum Jam stars in these bar cookies.

Imagine jam that tastes as if peak ripe fruit were picked off the tree, then immediately cooked down before a luscious spoonful made it into your mouth a mere moment after cooling.

I think that’s the highest compliment I can give San Francisco’s Saba Jam, which tastes so clear and vivid, and comes in such inspired flavors as Blueberry Verjus, Bosenberry Beet, and Persian Lime Juniper Berry.

They’re the handiwork of Saba Parsa, an Iranian American who is a former chemical engineer-turned extraordinary jam maker.

She scours local farmers markets for the best fruit in season to make her small-batch jams using a minimum of sugar. She drops new ones only four times per year. They’re so highly regarded that they’ve racked up multiple Good Food Awards.

I had an opportunity to try samples of two of her jams: Nectarine Ginger, and Fig Ume Plum (8-ounce jars for $19.95 each).

Saba Jams made in small batches with seasonal, local fruit.
Saba Jams made in small batches with seasonal, local fruit.

The former is slightly chunky with bits of candied ginger, adding a subtle warmth. It tastes very much like a nectarine crumble. It would be wonderful on so many breakfast staples — be it oatmeal, plain yogurt, toast, scone or bagel. Or even drizzled over roasted squash.

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Everything’s Coming Up Roses, Part II: The Bar Cookie

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White chocolate, freeze-dried strawberries, and dried rose petals spiff up these blondie-like bars.
White chocolate, freeze-dried strawberries, and dried rose petals spiff up these blondie-like bars.

She is the self-proclaimed “queen of easy-peasy baking.”

And Brooklyn-based recipe developer Jessie Sheehan’s latest cookbook certainly adds another jewel to that crown.

“Snackable Bakes” (Countryman Press), of which I received a review copy, is the type of cookbook that makes baking a treat on a whim not only doable but deliciously satisfying.

The book includes 100 no-nonsense recipes that are simple to follow, require limited equipment, and easy to put together. There’s no stressing over baking “Strawberry Sheet Cake,” “Luscious Lemon Possets,” “S’more Icebox Cake” or “Espresso Ganache Swirl No-Churn Ice Cream.”

I tried my hand at “Strawberry-n-Cream Bar Cookies,” a blondie-like bar cookie that’s flavored with freeze-dried strawberries and white chocolate chips.

Just for fun, I also added some dried rose petals to the dough because strawberries and rose go together nearly as well as peanut butter and chocolate, with the rose accentuating the lovely floral quality of ripe berries.

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Bigger Bolder Irish Shortbread For Trying Times

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We all need a big, buttery cookie in these trying times.
We all need a big, buttery cookie in these trying times. Plus, you can play Jenga with it!

In a crisis, some people hoard toilet paper.

I bake.

And apparently, from the looks of social media, I’m not the only one. Peppering the updates of so many of my friends lately are photos and confessions of baking to ease the mind or merely distract from the news of late.

I readily admit that I sometimes fall victim to procrastibaking — ignoring writing deadlines only to bake a batch of cookies instead. Stress baking is merely its close cousin.

Psychologists have explained that those who hoard toilet paper or empty grocery shelves in a panic are only trying to exercise control in a world that now seems very much out of our hands. We can’t guarantee we won’t catch a deadly coronavirus. But darned if we can’t make sure our pantries and cupboards are filled to capacity.

And so, I bake. Because if I’m going down, I’m doing so fighting — and with a ready-steady supply of buttery sweet treats.

“Bigger Bolder Irish Shortbread” is ideal at times like this. It’s from the new cookbook, “Bigger Bolder Baking: A Fearless Approach to Baking Anytime, Anywhere” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019), of which I received a review copy.

It’s by Gemma Stafford, an Irish-born chef and creator of the YouTube baking show, “Bigger Bolder Baking,” who now makes her home in Los Angeles.

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