Raspberry crumble slice

The older I get, the faster time seems to move. Weeks, months and years are just flying by and there never seems to be enough time to do all the things I want to do.

I suddenly woke up this morning and remembered I needed to make something to take with me to a picnic this afternoon. That didn’t leave enough time to make my usual cupcakes, which need to be started the day before. So I decided to make this raspberry crumble slice. It is a great last minute recipe, as it uses ingredients that I usually have on hand in the house and doesn’t take too long to throw together. The rich, nutty, buttery shortbread base and crumble provide a great contrast to the fresh, tart raspberries and it is one of my favourite quick treats.

Raspberry crumble slice

You will need a 18cm x 28cm slice pan for this recipe

Ingredients

• 150g butter – cut into cubes
• 110g icing sugar – sifted, plus extra to dust
• 260g plain flour
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• A pinch of salt
• 60g ground walnuts (I ground mine fresh in a small food processor)
• 300g frozen raspberries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C fan forced (180C normal). Grease and line the base and sides of the slice pan (18cm x 28cm) with baking paper.
2. In a medium sized bowl, beat together the butter and icing sugar with an electric beater until pale and creamy. You may wish to combine slightly with a spoon first, to avoid icing sugar flying everywhere!
3. Once pale and creamy, sift in the flour, salt and cinnamon and add the ground walnuts. Stir the mix gently until it forms a crumble mixture.
4. Keep one cup of the mixture for later and press the rest of the mix into the base of the prepared pan, either with your hands or the bottom of a glass. Top evenly with the raspberries and sprinkle over the remaining cup of the crumble mix.
5. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until pale golden. Remove and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing.
6. When cool, dust with icing sugar, cut and serve.

Adapted from Raspberry Crumble Shortcake, Australian Table April 2006