apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

These cookies are an odd mix of fast and slow. They have a very quick base that comes together with melted butter (three sticks of it!!), so you don't need to cream butter and sugar or anything like that. You do, however, have to make raisin filling yourself, which involves a food processor and simmering raisins with lemon zest and whatnot. If we make these again we'll use jam for a 5-minute mix-up.

We have to say we really liked the raisin filling, though. It was rich and deeply flavorful. We used a mix of golden and regular raisins along with extra lemon zest.

The overall verdict on these, however, was that they were disappointingly crumbly. This may be balanced out by their other merits - you tell us. Here's the breakdown:

Liked
• Very fast
• Easy
• The sweet and musky raisin filling
• Not too sweet - if you disregard the butter these are a good breakfast option.
• Chris used cherries for filling and liked this a lot

Disliked
• 3 sticks of butter!
• Very crumbly - even after they were fully cooled they crumbled away - see the remains in the pan below.
• Not quite enough filling; if we make these again we'll increase it by 50% or even double it.

One last caveat: we have been enjoying these with tea. We think that may be the missing link; they're like a crumbly, stick-to-your-ribs biscuit that is meant to be washed down and enhanced with a good cup of afternoon tea. They just aren't the soft, chewy bars we were expecting.

If you want to try them the recipe is here: Oatmeal-Raisin Squares.