Feast your senses on a medley of delectable almond and candied orange zest bars, a symphony of flavors that will transport you to a realm of culinary bliss. These handcrafted treats are not just a dessert; they are an embodiment of artistry and indulgence. Embark on a delightful journey through three enticing recipes, each offering a unique twist on this classic combination. Immerse yourself in the simplicity of the original almond bar, where every bite is a harmonious blend of nutty sweetness and a hint of citrus zest. Then, tantalize your taste buds with the decadent chocolate almond bar, a rich and indulgent creation that combines the timeless flavors of chocolate and almonds in perfect harmony. For those seeking a burst of freshness, the orange almond bar awaits, a delightful blend of zesty oranges, nutty almonds, and a hint of vanilla that will invigorate your senses. Whichever recipe you choose, prepare to be captivated by the symphony of flavors and textures that make these almond and candied orange zest bars an unforgettable culinary experience.
Let's cook with our recipes!
ALMOND-ORANGE FINANCIER
Rich and buttery, this French cake is named for its resemblance to a banker's bar of gold. We've added flecks of orange zest to punctuate the classic almond-flavored batter and baked it in a tart pan, rather than in the traditional individual molds.
Provided by Martha Stewart
Categories Food & Cooking Dessert & Treats Recipes Cake Recipes
Number Of Ingredients 8
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush the inside of a 13 1/2-by-4-inch tart pan that has a nonremovable bottom with melted butter; transfer to freezer.
- Using a food processor, pulse almonds until finely ground. In a large bowl, combine ground almonds, confectioners' sugar, flour, salt, and orange zest. Add egg whites, and whisk to combine. Slowly stir in butter.
- Remove tart pan from freezer. Pour batter into pan; place on a baking sheet. Bake until dough just begins to rise, about 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 400 degrees and continue baking 7 to 8 minutes more, until financier begins to brown. Turn off oven, and let cake stand in oven until firm, about 10 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Invert financier onto rack; reinvert, and slice into 6 pieces. Garnish top with candied orange peel, and dust with confectioners' sugar.
ALMOND AND CANDIED ORANGE ZEST BARS
Mix in, refrigerate, slice, bake: Try all of our shaped icebox-cookie variations.
Provided by Martha Stewart
Categories Cookie Recipes
Yield Makes about 10 dozen
Number Of Ingredients 3
Steps:
- Once the flour is incorporated according to dough recipe, beat in almonds and orange peel. Divide dough into 2 pieces. Shape each into a 10-inch-long rectangle. Wrap in parchment. Refrigerate until very firm, about 2 hours.
- Slice dough crosswise slightly thicker than 1/8 inch. Reshape if needed. Bake at 350 degrees on parchment-lined baking sheets until firm, 12 to 14 minutes.
CANDIED ORANGE ZEST FOR CRANBERRY TRIFLE
Use this orange zest recipe when making our Cranberry Trifle.
Provided by Martha Stewart
Categories Food & Cooking Dessert & Treats Recipes
Number Of Ingredients 3
Steps:
- In a medium saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add zest of 1 orange (peeled into long strips with a vegetable peeler); simmer, swirling occasionally, until zest is tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and transfer to a plate. Dredge zest in sugar, and thinly slice.
GINGER AND ALMOND BARS
Gluten-free bar cookies with an almond meal base and a candied ginger, sliced almond, and honey topping.
Provided by Patricia Wells
Categories HarperCollins Dessert Almond Ginger Cookies Bake Wheat/Gluten-Free Honey
Yield Makes 16 bars
Number Of Ingredients 17
Steps:
- Center a rack in the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line the pan with baking parchment, letting the parchment hang over the sides. (This will make it easier to remove the dessert once baked.)
- Prepare the base:
- In the saucepan, melt the butter. Add the almond meal, fresh ginger, honey, egg, salt, and vanilla. Stir until well combined. The mixture should be thick and sticky.
- Turn the mixture out into the prepared pan. To help make a level and even base, place a piece of plastic wrap on top of the base. Using a flat-bottomed glass (or your fingers), smooth out the base by pressing gently to evenly cover the bottom of the pan. Remove and discard the plastic wrap. Bake until the base is slightly firm, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the topping:
- In the same saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the almonds, candied ginger, honey, salt, and vanilla. Stir just until the ingredients are incorporated.
- When the base is baked, spread the topping evenly over the base and bake until the topping is dark and sizzling, 12 to 15 minutes. Do not underbake.
- Transfer the pan to the baking rack to cool. When the dessert is completely cool, remove it from the pan using the overhanging parchment as handles and cut it into 16 even squares.
- Do Ahead
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
- Variation:
- Chestnut Honey Squares: For the base, replace 1 cup (90g) almond meal with 3/4 cup (120 g) unbleached, all-purpose flour and use a strong honey, such as chestnut, in place of the mild honey. For the topping, replace the candied ginger with organic candied orange or lemon peel, cut into tiny cubes.
ALMOND SPICE BARS
Provided by Food Network Kitchen
Time 2h45m
Yield about 24
Number Of Ingredients 17
Steps:
- Line an 8-inch square baking dish with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang; coat with cooking spray. Bring the honey and granulated sugar to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve. Remove from the heat and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in the cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg; let cool slightly, 10 minutes.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Quickly stir the beaten egg into the honey-sugar mixture with a rubber spatula, then add the almonds, orange peel, vanilla, lemon zest and 1 tablespoon liqueur. Stir in the flour mixture until combined (the dough will be stiff and dry). Scrape into the prepared pan. Lightly coat a piece of plastic wrap with cooking spray and use to press the dough into an even layer. Set aside 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the bars until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with only a few crumbs, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Make the glaze: Whisk the confectioners' sugar, orange juice and remaining 1 tablespoon
- liqueur in a bowl until smooth. Brush the warm bars with some of the glaze; cover the remaining glaze and set aside. Let the bars cool 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to a cutting board. Cut into 1-by-2 1/2-inch bars and let cool completely on a rack.
- Drizzle the bars with the remaining glaze; top with candied orange peel.
CANDIED ORANGE ZEST
Steps:
- Heat the 1 cup of sugar and water to a boil. Add peels and simmer until they are transparent, about 12 minutes. Syrup should be thick. Remove from syrup and toss in sugar, let dry, away from humidity. Store in an airtight tin.
- TIP:
- RED ORANGES
- Use blood oranges in your favorite recipes as you would regular oranges. Taste for sweetness, you may have to add a bit more sugar in some recipes
ORANGES WITH AMBER CARAMEL AND CANDIED ZEST
Steps:
- Slice the ends off the oranges, and discard. Working from the top to the bottom, slice the peel off in strips, to reveal the orange flesh. Cut the white pith from the back of the peel with a sharp knife, and discard. Slice the orange peel into fine julienne strips, put it in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Drain, and rinse under cold running water. Repeat this process three times. Blanching the orange peel like this removes much of the bitter taste.
- Cut out the sections from the oranges into a bowl, squeezing any juice out of the membrane before discarding. Set aside.
- Pour the sugar into a saute pan or large heavy saucepan. Melt the sugar and let it develop a deep amber color, without letting it burn. Pour over 1 cup water/250 ml water and any juice that has pooled around the orange slices. The caramel will seize up, so leave the pan on the heat until the water and juice dissolve into the caramel. Add the drained julienne of zests and boil until they turn translucent, become candy coated and a dark amber color, 5 to 10 minutes. The zests will be sweet and chewy with a faint hint of bitterness and intense orange flavor.
- Add about 4 spoonfuls of this caramel with candied orange zest to the fresh orange slices, and toss. Cover, and set aside in a cool place until serving.
- (Cool the remaining caramel and orange zest. If too thick, simply thin out with a bit of water to achieve a thick syrup. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator; it will keep for at least 6 months.)
- Serve the oranges with their caramel and candied peel sprinkled with lightly toasted almond slivers and slightly sweetened whipped cream.
DARK CHOCOLATE AND ORANGE TART WITH TOASTED ALMONDS
Categories Liqueur Milk/Cream Chocolate Dessert Bake Orange Almond Bon Appétit
Yield Makes 12 to 16 servings
Number Of Ingredients 18
Steps:
- For candied orange peel:
- Using vegetable peeler, remove peel (orange part only) from orange in strips. Cut strips into matchstick-size pieces and place in small saucepan. Cover with cold water; bring to boil. Cook 30 seconds; drain. Rinse saucepan; add 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons water, and peel. Stir over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Simmer until peel is translucent and syrup is thick, about 20 minutes. Using tines of fork, transfer peel to plate and cool. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and store at room temperature.)
- For crust:
- Using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl until smooth. Beat in cocoa powder. Add flour and beat until dough comes together in moist clumps. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day.
- Roll out dough between sheets of waxed paper to 11-inch round. Peel off top sheet of paper. Invert dough over 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom; peel off paper. Gently press dough into pan. Press dough overhang in to form double-thick sides. Pierce dough all over with fork. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake crust until sides look dry and bottom looks bubbly, about 14 minutes. Transfer crust to rack. Using back of spoon, press up sides of dough if falling. Cool completely.
- For filling:
- Toss almonds, sugar, and cinnamon in small bowl. Chop all but 2 strips of peel. Sprinkle chopped orange peel, then almond mixture over bottom of prepared crust. Place cream in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to simmer. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth; mix in Grand Marnier. Pour into crust. Refrigerate until filling is firm, at least 3 hours. Garnish with remaining 2 orange peel strips. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover loosely with foil and keep refrigerated.)
- Using sharp knife, gently loosen crust from pan sides. Remove pan sides. Cut tart into wedges; serve cold.
FLOURLESS ALMOND COOKIES WITH CARDAMOM, ORANGE ZEST, AND PISTACHIOS
Both cardamom and pistachios are essential ingredients in Persian dessert making. This dough is delicate because it doesn't contain any gluten, so be sure it's fully chilled and firm before rolling into logs and slicing into cookies.
Provided by Louisa Shafia
Categories Cookies Passover Kosher for Passover Almond Cardamom Orange Pistachio Chocolate Dessert Potato Wheat/Gluten-Free Kidney Friendly Vegetarian Pescatarian Peanut Free Soy Free Kosher
Yield Makes about 30
Number Of Ingredients 10
Steps:
- Using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream sugar and oil in a large bowl until mixture resembles texture of wet sand, about 3 minutes. Add egg and orange zest and beat until just combined.
- Whisk almond flour, potato starch, cardamom, and salt in a medium bowl. Fold dry ingredients into oil mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and chill 1 hour.
- Spread pistachios in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Divide dough into 2 balls. Roll each ball into 1 1/2" wide logs, then roll logs in pistachios to coat; reserve remaining pistachios for decorating, if desired. Wrap logs in plastic wrap and chill at least 1 1/2 hours.
- Arrange racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment. Using a sharp knife, slice dough into 1/4"-thick rounds and arrange on baking sheets (about 12 per sheet). Sprinkle with reserved pistachios, pressing lightly to adhere (alternatively, drizzle with melted chocolate after cookies are baked, see below).
- Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until undersides are golden, 8-12 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks. Let 1 sheet cool completely before lining again with parchment and baking third batch.
- If you didn't sprinkle the cookies with pistachios, melt chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over a medium pot of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally, or in short bursts in the microwave, stirring in between bursts, until chocolate is smooth. Drizzle cooled cookies with chocolate and let set before serving.
- Do Ahead
- Dough can be formed into logs 3 days ahead; keep chilled. Cookies can be baked 3 days ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Tips:
- Use fresh, high-quality ingredients. This will make a big difference in the flavor of your bars.
- Don't overmix the dough. Overmixing will make the bars tough.
- Be patient when waiting for the bars to cool. This will help them set properly.
- Store the bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Conclusion:
Almond and Candied Orange Zest Bars are a delicious and easy-to-make treat that is perfect for any occasion. With their almond-flavored shortbread crust, sweet and tangy orange zest filling, and crunchy almond topping, these bars are sure to impress everyone who tries them. So next time you're looking for a unique and flavorful dessert, give these bars a try!
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