Spice Square

This is my Grandma Thomas's recipe. Nathan requested it this week (thanks for emailing it to me, Mum). I had a desperate moment when, partway through making it, I discovered that the half-jar of jam in the cupboard... the only jar of jam... was very mouldy after a warm summer break! Read the variation below to see how I solved this dilemma.

4oz butter
4oz sugar
1 egg
1 Tbsp golden syrup
1½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp cinnamon
raspberry jam (jelly)
raspberry or strawberry jelly (Jell-o) crystals

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and syrup. Sift together flour, baking powder and spices, and add to creamed mixture.

On baking paper, spread or roll out dough to twice the size of a sponge roll tin. (It will be thin!) Spread half the dough with raspberry jam. Use paper to fold dough in half, enclosing the jam. Trim paper and slide into tin. Bake 20-25 minutes, at 350ºF.

When cool, ice with plain butter icing and sprinkle over jelly crystals. Cut into squares.

Variation: if jam is unavailable, reserve jelly crystals for sprinkling on icing, then sprinkle the remainder of the packet on the dough in place of the jam. This makes a thinner, slightly chewier filling than jam, but tastes much the same!

Raspberry Bars

(adapted from Taunton’s Fine Cooking Magazine – Dec 2006)

Yields about 4 dozen bars.

375g unsalted butter at room temperature (plus more for pan)
1⅔ c granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3½ c all-purpose flour
2oog hazelnuts, toasted & chopped (1⅔ c)
2 c raspberry jam

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Butter a 9x13-inch baking pan.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and mix just enough to incorporate. Add the nuts and mix until just blended.
Press about two thirds of the mixture into the prepared pan. Spread with raspberry jam, then crumble the remaining dough on top. Bake until the top is lightly browned, about 1 hour. Cool and cut into squares.

Yummy as a dessert, served warm with icecream!