Monday, October 3, 2011

Mixed berry streusel on shortbread.

For a wile I worked on finding the best recipe for a streusel type bar.   I tried a lot of different ones.  This streusel has been developed out of several different recipes.   the bottom is a shortbread recipe that I changed ratio's just slightly but is pretty much the same as the original recipe.   The topping is a small amount of the bottom with extra sugar.  And for variations I have added to that: nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and other mulling type spices.   The filling is totally my own creation, I don't like a all jelly texture center, but I also don't want something that is just chunky fruit\berries mixed with sugar.

The way I do this is in a sauce pan cook my ingredients for a wile; whatever fruit\berry I use, sugar (and depending on fruit or berry, lemon juice or vanilla extract) and water.  Or sometimes I replace the water with a juice - with a citrus juice I leave the sugar amount the same.  With a apple or pear juice etc I decrease sugar levels about 1/4-1/2 cups.   After boiling the chopped/whole fruit\berries in the  liquid and sugar I pour it into a food processor where I blend it until its not quite puree'd but close runny but still some chunks here and there.   And then I return it back to the sauce pan and continue cooking until the mixture reaches a boiling point.  Then I add 1 tsp thickener (corn starch or potato flour, etc) and cook until reaches the right thickness.  Also remember when it cools it will be thicker then when hot.  

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