These fresh raspberry chocolate bars with a shortbread base are an easy treat to whip up and enjoy with your sweetie this Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day is the holiday known for celebrating love with cards, gifts, flowers, and chocolate! These raspberry chocolate bars will have you covered in the chocolate department!
Don’t you love how raspberries look like small hearts? That’s why I chose them to be a key part of this recipe and everyone knows that they pair wonderfully with chocolate!
I personally am not a fan of desserts that are too sweet. This is why I chose two different chocolates for the chocolate layer. I used a combination of semisweet and unsweetened baker’s chocolate. You can always tailor this part to your liking. You could even use white chocolate. The possibilities are endless!
Making the base
The buttery shortbread crust really compliments this balanced treat. A little bit of salty and sweetness is the key! I used a food processor to combine all the crust ingredients together. This definitely saved me some time but don’t worry if you don’t have one. You could always do this by hand. Pour the ingredients in a large bowl and combine everything with a pastry blender or fork. I’ve also seen people accomplish this by using a hand mixer so you could try that as well. Be sure to allow the crust to cool completely before adding your layer of chocolate and raspberries.
Helpful tips
Here are a few things to keep in mind when making these tasty bars: If you try to cut your bars when they’re too cold and hard, they will most likely crack. If you are storing them in the fridge, I recommend leaving them out for about ten minutes before cutting.
Storage recommendations
You can keep these bars at room temperature for about 3 days. I however recommend storing them in the freezer of refrigerator because as we all know, the life expectancy of fresh raspberries is very short!
Stay tuned for more Valentine’s Day treats coming your way!
Looking for other delicious dessert bar recipes? Check out Mexican Dessert Bar Recipe that You Will Love!
Link to food processor and 9×9 baking dish on Amazon.
Raspberry Chocolate Shortbread Bars
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 8 tbsp cold, unsalted butter
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp milk
Chocolate Layer
- 3 oz unsweetened baker's chocolate
- 8 oz semisweet baker's chocolate
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, not melted
- fresh raspberries as many or as little as you want
- flaky salt for finishing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 9×9 baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In your food processor, combine flour, chunks of butter, salt, vanilla extract, sugar, egg yolk, and tablespoon of milk. Place dough onto floured surface and roll out to similar shape and size of your baking dish. Add and knead in extra flour if dough is too sticky.
- Place and press dough into baking dish so that you no longer see the bottom of the dish. I used the flat bottom of a measuring cup to do this. Poke a few holes in the dough with a fork. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Once removed from the oven, let shortbread crust cool to room temperature. Start getting your chocolate layer together during this time.
Chocolate Layer
- Chop up all blocks of chocolate and place into a microwave safe bowl with your tablespoon of coconut oil. Microwave for about a minute, stirring every 30 seconds. Depending on your microwave settings, you may need to do this a bit longer.
- Once your chocolate has a nice, smooth concistency, pour over your cooled shortbread crust. Drop raspberries over the chocolate. Place in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes and then sprinkle flaky salt. Cool for another 20 minutes or so before removing bars from dish. Cut bars into desired size. Enjoy!
