Raspberry Shortbread Bars

Directions

• Step 1 Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Be sure the rack in your oven is in the middle position.
• Step 2 Using a stand mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar and powdered sugar. Use the paddle attachment and set the mixer at medium speed. Cream the mixture for about 5 minutes until it is light and airy, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Set aside.
• Step 3 Whisk the egg yolks and vanilla together and add to the whipped butter mixture. Process for only a few minutes to totally incorporate the egg mixture into the butter.
• Step 4 Sift the all-purpose flour and the cake flour together. Whisk in the baking powder and the salt. Turn the mixer on low speed and slowly add the flour to the butter/vanilla mixture. Only mix until the flour is completely incorporated into the batter. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and be sure you don’t have any pockets of flour in your dough.
• Step 5 Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap and spoon the dough onto the plastic wrap. Then, divide out 1/4 of the dough and place it on another sheet of plastic wrap, wrapping the plastic wrap around the dough and then pressing the dough into a disk. Place the disk in your freezer for at least 2 hours. Wrap the remaining 3/4 of the dough in its plastic wrap sheet and press it into a disk that is about 8 inches in diameter and about 1 inch thick. Refrigerate this disk for at least 30 minutes.
• Step 6 When you are ready to bake, remove the refrigerated dough disk (the disk made with 3/4 of the dough). Place two sheets of parchment on your counter. Dust larger dough disk and the parchment with flour. Place the dough disk between the two sheets and gently roll into a rectangle that measures about 9 inches by 13 inches. The rectangle should be about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer the dough sheet to a large metal baking sheet. Place the rolled-out dough sheet in your refrigerator to firm up for a few minutes.
• Step 7 Remove the top parchment sheet, trim the edges of the chilled dough to make your dough rectangle more even (I used a pizza cutter wheel for this),  and bake the dough sheet for about twenty minutes. It should just be getting a very light brown. Remove from the oven and let the dough cool for about 15 minutes on a rack.
• Step 8 While the dough sheet is baking, remove the small frozen dough disk from the freezer. Using the large holes in a box grater, grate the frozen dough. Set aside.
• Step 9 Spread the jam onto the still-warm dough sheet using a spatula being careful to put an even layer of jam on all parts of the sheet. Then, sprinkle the grated dough on top of the jam, again being careful to spread the grated dough evenly across the jam. Bake for another 20 minutes until the grated dough on top of the sheet is just beginning to pick up a bit of color. Remove from the oven and let the shortbread cool completely.
• Step 10 Cut the shortbread into bars. Dust the top of the shortbread with powdered sugar.
• Step 11 Cook’s Note: If you don’t have cake flour in your pantry, you can easily make your own. Put 1 1/2 cup of  all-purpose flour into a measuring cup. Remove 3 T. of the flour from the measuring cup  and replace the 3 T. of flour with 3 T. of cornstarch. Now, sift the  flour/cornstarch mixture twice and you are ready to go! Be sure to remeasure your flour/cornstarch cake flour before adding it to your recipe. The sifting adds air to the mixture and you may have more than 1 1/2 C. when you are finished sifting.