Gooey Butter Tart Bars
An easy traybake: a buttery shortbread base topped with brown sugar butter-tart filling, raisins and walnuts, baked and cut into squares.
Method
Heat the oven to 180 °C. Line a 15×15 cm square tin with baking paper, leaving it overhanging on two sides so you can lift the whole slab out later.
Base: mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl, add the cold butter cut into 1 cm cubes and rub it in with your fingertips until it looks like damp sand. Tip it into the tin and press it down firmly and evenly with the bottom of a cup.
Add in this stepPlain flour (for the base) 75 gCaster sugar 15 gSalt (for the base) 1 pinchCold butter (for the base) 55 g
Bake at 180 °C for , until the edges are pale golden.
Filling: while the base bakes, melt the butter in a small pan on low heat for and turn off the heat. Stir in the brown sugar and syrup, then the egg, flour, vanilla and salt until smooth, and fold in the raisins and walnuts.
Add in this stepButter (for the filling) 30 gBrown sugar 75 gGolden syrup (or corn syrup) 50 mlEgg, beaten and weighed (1 large egg is about 50 g) 50 gPlain flour (for the filling) 2 tspVanilla extract ½ tspSalt (for the filling) 1 pinchRaisins 40 gWalnuts, roughly chopped 30 g
low heatPour the filling evenly over the hot base and return it to the oven at 180 °C for . Take it out when the edges are set and only the centre wobbles slightly.
Leave to cool completely in the tin for at least (30 minutes in the fridge gives cleaner cuts), then lift it out by the paper and cut with a knife dipped in warm water and wiped.
Cook's tip
Cut while warm and the filling runs, so let it cool completely. Serve with a scoop of ice cream for a plated dessert. They keep for up to 5 days in a sealed box in the fridge.
Cooking it at camp
Bake and cool at home, then pack them in the tin or cut in a sealed box so they don't break. In the cooler they firm up and turn fudgy; left in the sun they soften again.