Mmmmm, raspberries are on sale at the grocery store and that is a sure sign of spring! Also a good time for me to make a favorite cookie bar. This is easy to make and it tastes soooo good! If you’re not worried about the carbs, you can use regular flour and sugar in it. If you’re avoiding gluten, use almond flour for the CarbQuick. At 1.3 g of carbs per cookie, the biggest challenge is avoid the “just one more bite” syndrome!

Raspberry Shortbread Cookie Bars

Batter:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup butter flavored shortening
3/4 cup CarbQuick baking mix
1/2 cup Almond flour
1/4 cup Coconut flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar alcohol or other sugar substitute
1/4 cup powdered sugar, from sugar alcohol or other sugar substitute**
12 drops liquid Sucralose or sugar free sweetener
1/2 teaspoon lemon or lime juice
1 tablespoon vanilla protein powder (optional- use one more tablespoon of Carbquick)
3/4 cup fresh or unsweetened frozen raspberries, chopped *

Topping:
1/4 cup almond meal
3 tablespoons brown sugar replacement
1/4 cup chopped pecans, almonds, walnuts or macadamia nuts (optional)
1/4 cup of the batter above

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Batter:
Cream together the butter, shortening and sugars. Add lemon or lime juice and mix into the creamed butter.

Mix the flours together and add the protein powder. Add gradually to the butter mixture until it is well blended.

Remove 1/4 cup of the batter for the topping.

Topping:
In a separate small bowl, use a fork to mix 1/4 cup almond meal, brown sugar, pecans and the reserved batter together to make a crumbly mixture.

Spray a 9 x 9 baking pan with baking spray or line with parchment paper. Press the batter into the baking pan. Smooth the mixture to make it as even as possible. Spread raspberries in one layer over the top.

Crumble topping over the raspberries.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the edges are golden brown and the middle looks set. It will get firmer as it cools. Let cool completely then cut into bars.

Makes about 20 cookies.

Nutrition per cookie: Calories: 94.4 Fat: 8.6 g Net Carbs: 1.3 g Protein: 2 g

Tips: Want an even quicker although not quite as showy, way to make these? Simply add the raspberries and nuts to the batter after it is completely mixed and press into the pan. Cook as above. This eliminates the topping mix.

*I put the berries into a small bowl and simply pull a sharp knife through them until they are sliced into little pieces. Be sure to scoop the juice out with the berries when spreading it on the dough.

You can make your own powdered sugar by putting your sugar substitute in a food processor and processing for a few minutes until it is a fine powder. Measure out once it is processed.

You can also make this with strawberries, blueberries, cranberries (although you need to cook them until they pop and add about 1/4 cup of sugar substitute to them). Other fruits will likely work, but will be higher carb’d due to the natural sugars in them. You can also use sugar free jams spread on the cookie dough or mixed into the dough.

POSTED BY RENE AVERETT AT 4/10/2013 1:39 PM