Almond Bars

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: almond bars

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Servings:

Calories: 166kcal

Buttery, nutty and delicious! These bars might look humble, but you'll be surprised how flavorful and delicious they are!

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Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping

1 egg white
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 teaspoons coarse sugar turbinado sugar or sparkling sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325°F.
Prepare a 9" x 9" baking pan by greasing lightly with butter. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, then set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and blend until well combined.
Add egg, almond extract and vanilla extract and blend 30 seconds or so (until all ingredients are fully incorporated).
While slowly mixing, pour in flour (a bit at a time). Blend just until all of the flour is incorporated and the dough is pulling away from the sides of the bowl.
Scoop dough into the prepared pan and use a spatula to spread it a bit. Then, lay a piece of plastic wrap on top of the dough and use your hands to press the dough into the pan in as even a layer as possible. After you've gotten it pretty flat and even with your hands, with the plastic still on top, use the flat bottom of a measuring cup (or something similar) to level the dough just a bit more, until the top of the dough is nice and level and flat. Then remove (and discard) the plastic wrap.
In a small bowl whisk together the egg white and milk. Use a pastry brush to brush a layer of the egg/milk mixture on top of the dough. You will not need all of the liquid.
Sprinkle the sliced almonds in an even layer all over the dough. Sprinkle a bit of raw sugar or sparkling sugar on top of the almonds..
Bake in preheated oven for 25-28 minutes, or until the edges are getting a bit golden.
Keep the pan in the oven and adjust oven temperature to broil and broil for 1-2 minutes, just until the almonds have a bit of golden brown all over (do not walk away from the oven while broiling and watch carefully so you don't burn the almonds/bars).

Notes

Generally when I'm making cookie bars I like to line my baking pans with parchment paper, but in this case I recommend simply using butter directly on the pan. It helps create just a bit more browning on the bottom of the bars (versus with parchment) and for this recipe I like all the edges (and top and bottom) of the bars to have a bit of browning (for flavor and texture).

Nutrition