Raspberry Bars with Chocolate Glaze

About This Recipe

There is something quietly precise about this bar cookie. Three identical strips of almond shortcrust, baked flat on an inverted baking sheet — a technique that appears in Central European home baking manuals from the early 1900s — layered with raspberry jam and finished with a poured chocolate glaze. The result is sliced into narrow bars, which is where the name stanglice comes from: little rods, little bars.

The dough is richer than it looks. Ground almonds replace a portion of the flour, which keeps the crumb short and slightly moist even after baking. The raspberry jam provides the necessary acidity — without it, the butter and chocolate would read as dense and one-note. The chocolate glaze, once set, cracks cleanly under a sharp knife, giving each bar that satisfying visual contrast between the dark top, the red middle, and the pale crust beneath.

These are the kind of pastry that appear on every holiday table without fanfare, made the day before and kept in a tin. They are not difficult. They require patience at two moments: waiting for the baked strips to cool before assembly, and waiting for the glaze to fully set before cutting. Both waits are worth it.

Why It Works

The decision to bake on an inverted baking sheet is not an accident. A standard sheet has raised edges that trap steam and prevent the dough from drying evenly at the sides. Inverting it gives you an entirely flat surface with open edges, producing a crispier, more uniform result — particularly important here, since the three strips must be flat enough to stack without wobbling.

Ground almonds in shortcrust dough do two things: they interrupt the gluten network (keeping the texture short and tender) and they add fat, which means the dough needs slightly less butter than an all-flour version while still achieving the same richness. The ratio here — 50g almonds to 110g butter and 185g flour — lands in the range that is firm enough to roll thin but relaxed enough to not shatter when sliced.

The addition of oil and butter to the chocolate glaze is the key to cutting cleanly. Straight melted chocolate sets too rigid and tends to crack when a knife passes through. A small amount of fat — butter for flavour, oil for fluidity — keeps the glaze at a consistency that yields cleanly rather than fracturing across the surface.

Modern Kitchen Tips

Let the dough rest in the fridge before rolling — even 15 minutes makes a significant difference in how it handles. Cold fat is slower to melt into the flour, which means the dough relaxes rather than tearing when you roll it thin.

If your three strips come out slightly uneven, trim them with a knife before assembling. The final cut into bars will expose the edges anyway, and clean layers matter more than you might expect.

For the cleanest chocolate cuts, run a long, thin knife under hot water, wipe it dry, and slice in a single downward motion. Do not saw. Repeat the hot-water step between each cut.

The bars improve overnight. The jam gradually softens the crust from the inside, and the flavours — butter, almond, raspberry, dark chocolate — settle into something more coherent than they are on day one.

A classic of early 20th century home cooking, preserved and adapted for the modern kitchen.