Recipe: Blackberry Jamble Shortbread Bars

I'll bet you can hear us groaning from where ever you are. We just ate so much! It was a Sunday feast. We topped it off with this delicious recipe from a cookbook my brothers got me for Christmas, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.

It was a pretty easy recipe to make, though it did take quite a while. But it was deliciously sweet and had a nice mixture of chewy and crunchy. Liz kept eating long after she was full (well, we all did) and now we all have tummy aches. But so worth it. Definitely try this one out if you have the time.

Ingredients
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (I used dark and it seemed fine)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup almond flour or very finely ground almonds*
1 1/2 cups blackberry preserves
1/2 cup chopped almonds

*I couldn't find almond flour at our HEB so I bought a package of Hill Country almond slivers and threw them in our food processor. In less than a minute it ground them into a perfect powder - I love having a food processor.

Directions
Preheat oven to 325.
1. Combine butter and sugars in a large bowl. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat until creamy. Add vanilla and salt; beat til combined.

2. Add in flours and beat on a low speed until smooth.

3. In a greased 9x13 pan, press 1/3 of the dough evenly to form a crust. Wrap the other 2/3 of the dough in plastic wrap (tightly) and put in fridge for 30 minutes or until cold and firm.

4. Bake the crust until it begins to brown on the edges, about 20 min.
5. Remove from oven and spread blackberry jam evenly across crust. Take the remaining dough from the fridge and crumble it over the jam. It should be a  pebbly, crumbled topping. Sprinkle with chopped almonds.

6. Bake for 30 minutes or until a lightly golden color.