Prasselkuchen – Streusel Jam bars (Berlin)

Ingredients for the Crust

2 cups flour

1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

10.5 tablespoons European-style butter (I use Plugra*) – with high butterfat content, at room temperature

1 egg yolk

grated peel of 1/2 lemon

1 teaspoon water

*Note- Plugra bars are double the size of traditional butter sticks which are typically 4 oz or 8 Tablespoons. Plugra is 8 oz or 16 Tablespoons per stick. 

Ingredients for the Streusel

1/2 cup blanched almonds (I used Trader Joes almond slivers)

1 and 1/4 cups minus a tablespoon flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

7 Tablespoons European-style butter (see note above), at room temperature

1 cup jam – traditionally apricot or red currant. (Tart jam helps counterbalance the sweetness of the bars. I used a combination of  apricot and passion fruit/orange jam.)

To make the Crust– Put flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl, Cut the butter into cubes and add those to the bowl. Using your fingers, start to massage the butter into the flour mixture. Add the egg yolk, lemon peel and water as you continue mixing. You want a relatively smooth dough but don’t overwork the dough beyond this point. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and put in fridge for an hour.

To make the Streusel – while dough chills, toast almonds  in a small pan over medium heat until they start to give off a nice smell. Don’t let them get brown. Remove pan from heat, cool slightly and chop almonds coarsely. Or – make it easy and do as I do – buy already toasted almond slivers at Trader Joe’s and skip this step!

Preheat oven to 375.

While oven preheats, line a 9×13 inch baking pan (metal is preferred to glass but either works) with parchment paper, allowing extra paper to hang over the sides. This will enable you to easily lift out the whole Prasselkuchen once it’s done baking.

Mix together the ingredients for the streusel –  first combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and cooled almonds. Cut the butter in cubes and add to the mixture. Rub the butter in with your fingers until the mixture looks like a combo of both smaller and larger sized peas or beans. (eg, not uniform size). Cover and refrigerate this mixture.

Remove the ball of dough for the crust from the fridge. Roll it out or otherwise press it into the baking pan to cover the base and form about 1/4 inch high sides. Prick the crust all over with the tips of  fork tines. Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove crust from oven and spread the jam evenly over the bottom crust. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the jam layer. Return the pan to the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the streusel topping is lightly colored and the jam is bubbling. Remove the pan from the oven, let cool on a rack.  Then use the parchment paper to lift out the Prasselkuchen onto a cutting board. Slice into approximately 30 one inch bars.

When completely cool, the bars can be stored in a tight-fitting cookie tin or other container. They will stay fresh for about a week, but they won’t last that long. Promise.