I Love H: Award-Winning H-Bars Recipe

I love love.

I also love cookies.

And furthermore, I adore a good story.

Naturally, I gravitated toward this recipe, since it combines all of the above in one tasty form. Adding to its intrigue was the fact that is was an award-winner: these bars are featured in the new book Holiday Cookies: Prize-Winning Family Recipes from the Chicago Tribune for Cookies, Bars, Brownies and More. 

These so-called "H-Bars" have a mysterious story: 

Victoria Weisenberg won first place in 2012 for this recip and her tale of using them to woo "a very special man". Weisenberg created the recipe as a Hanukkah give for her former beau and said the "H" stands for the first letter of his first name, though she opted to leave that name a mystery.

This story is what intrigued me about the bars, which I might have otherwise passed over owing to the fact that they are made with a raisin filling. This t-shirt design sums up my thoughts on raisins in cookies:

Luckily (great timing!) I just received a package from the California Dried Plum Board (no, really). It didn't take me long to decide to swap the prunes for the raisins. I'm glad I did: they add a wonderful moisture and mellow flavor to the bars. 

Yes, really.

The only other thing I did differently is I baked the bars in a loaf pan rather than the size specified in the recipe. Doing such, I had to increase the bake time by about 5 minutes. I have left the instructions intact though; if you want to make them look like mine, use a loaf pan, increase the bake time, and slice into fingers instead of bars. 

Award-winning H-Bars

• Yield: 20 bars
• Prep time: 30 minutes
• Bake time: 37 to 40 minutes per batch

Shortbread base:

• 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup flour
• ¼ cup granulated sugar

Middle layer

• ⅓ cup flour
• ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 4 ounces chopped dried plums (original recipe calls for ⅔ cup golden raisins)

Topping:

• ½ cup flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• ½ stick (¼ cup) unsalted
• butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Icing (I omitted this)

• ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1½–2 tablespoons milk
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

Procedure

1. Grease or coat with cooking spray a 7½-by-11-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 325 degrees.

2. For the shortbread, combine butter, flour and granulated sugar in a medium bowl until crumbly. Pack into the prepared pan; bake, 15 minutes.

3. For raisin layer, stir together flour with the baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. In another bowl, beat brown sugar, eggs and vanilla together until blended. Stir in dry ingredients and dried plum bits. Pour over the baked shortbread layer.

4. For the topping, combine ingredients in a bowl until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the middle layer. Bake, 22 to 25 minutes. Cool.

5. For the icing, combine confectioners’ sugar, 1½ tablespoons milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Add more milk, if needed, until you get a smooth, easy-to drizzle mixture. Drizzle over the top. Cut into 20 bars.

Food processor method: You do not have to wash the bowl of the processor between steps. Combine ingredients for the bottom layer with a few pulses until crumbly. Pack in pan. Bake as above. Prepare topping in the processor in the same way. Place in a bowl and set aside. Then, place brown sugar, eggs and vanilla in processor bowl and process until blended. Add dry ingredients and pulse a few times. Stir in raisins. Continue as above.

Do you like raisins in baked goods?

Comments

[Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar]

Love the dried plums in these bars! They look fabulous!

[Joanne]

I go back and forth on whether I like raisins in things..but on the whole yes. These sound great!

[Chineka @ Savor The Baking]

Love the story behind the bars and they look delicious.

[Cakespy]

Thanks Katrina! Much better than raisins!

Joanne: These ones are nice. If you made them with raisins I wouldn't stop being your friend...but I might not have any.

Chineka: They're awfully tasty! Thanks!

[Amrita]

Hi Jessie
Amrita from Mywifemakes here!
Omg you won't believe this but YEARS ago I used to be on Flickr and you sent me a postcard when you first started out posting your art!!!! That's so amazing that you stumbled upon our blog so many years later.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tunasushi/2199516558/ - this is it!

Just thought I'd let you know ;)

xox
Amrita

[Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy]

Yum! I love the addition of the dried plums.

Thank for commenting on my blog. I have bookmarked yours to come back :)

[Eva @ Eva Bakes]

I only like raisins in oatmeal raisin cookies. Otherwise, I don't like them in any other baked goods (I'm looking at you, carrot cake!). :)

[Cakespy]

Amrita! I am SO happy our paths crossed again. :-) Those were the days!! I have your site bookmarked now!

Danii: Thanks! I liked the plums, too.

Eva: GET OUT! Well, ok, you can have the cookies with raisins. I'll stick to those without. :-)

[Sandhya]

I am drooling looking at the cookies!