RASPBERRY FRANGIPANE CAKE (Serves 12)
This is good made the day before and covered with plastic wrap.

7 oz. almond paste
7 oz. unsalted butter, softened
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
5 eggs
1 cup sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups whole raspberries

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan. (I like to
use a springform pan.)
Use a food processor or a mixer w/ a paddle attachment to cream the almond
paste, butter, and sugar until smooth and light. (Some almond pastes stay
chunky for a while.) Add the vanilla and eggs, beating well and scraping
down the sides of the bowl after each addition. By hand, gently fold in the
flour until the batter is just barely combined. Fold in the raspberries.
Avoid overmixing, or the cake will be tough. Pour the batter into the
prepared pan and bake until the top is nicely brown and a toothpick comes out
clean, about 50-55 minutes. Cool completely before removing from the pan.
Serve this moist cake plain, or in a pool of raspberry sauce, or with whipped
cream topped with a few raspberries.

(Raspberry sauce: Press 2 c. raspberries through a fine strainer to puree
them and remove seeds. Make a simple syrup by stirring together 3 tbsp.
water and 1/4 c. sugar in a small saucepan and bringing to a boil. Cool.
Stir the puree and simple syrup together. Keeps in the refrigerator for a
week, or freeze.)

Raspberry Bars
2 1/2c all purpose flour
1 c sugar
1 c chopped pecans OR walnuts
1 c butter, softened
1 egg
1 10 jar raspberry preserves
Preheat oven to 350°

Grease a 9x13" baking pan. In a large mixer bowl, combine all ingredients except preserves. Beat at low speed until mixture is crumbly about 2-3 minutes. Reserve 1 1/2 c of crumb mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture into baking pan.
Spread preserves to within 1/2" from edges of the unbaked crumb mixture. Crumble remaining crumb mix over preserves.
Bake for 40-50 minutes or til lightly browned. Cool completely and cut into bars.
RL`

I make raspberry juice for using in recipes. Some I've made up myself. I make it like I was going to make jam and freeze it in 1 cup lots.

I pour it over a flan and then add vanilla pudding and top with whipped cream and berries.

I make a graham cracker crust in a 10 inch pie plate and add cream cheese filling and top with berries

Cream cheese filling
1 8 oz package philly--I soften for 10 seconds in the microwave
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp lemon rind
1 cup cool whip --thawed

beat Philly and sugar with a mixer on med.speed until smooth
blend in milk, lemon juice and rind
fold in whipped topping and spread over cooled crust. Top with raspberries.

I make lots of pies and bake and then freeze them. Great to have on hand for when you have company. Of all the pies I make these are my husband and son's favorite

I make raspberry vinegar. Now this is not the fancy vinegar you use on salads but a refreshing drink. I got the recipe from a very old pioneer cookbook. Although you use vinegar to leach the juice from the berries it is either boiled away in the cooking process or disguised by the berries--you certainly can't taste it.

Raspberry vinegar

Take any amount of berries and put them in a bowl or non aluminum pot. Add white vinegar to just cover the berries. Let stand 24 hours--the berries will be white. Bring to a boil and strain.

Measure the juice and add an equal amount of sugar (1 cup juice to 1 cup sugar) and boil 20 minutes. It can be poured into sterilized pint or 1/2 pint jars or frozen. I do it in 1 cup containers and freeze. Thaw before using. 2 or 3 tablespoons in a tall glass of ice water makes a refreshing summer drink. A whole container mixed with yogurt makes creamy popsickles for the kids.

Popsi fruit

2 cups plain yogurt
1 can frozen fruit juice
Pour yogurt into a bowl and thicken in the freezer for 1 hour. The yogurt will be half frozen. In a blender combine yogurt and juice. Blend until smooth. Pour into popsickle molds and freeze for at least 5 hours.

I mix the 1 cup of raspberry vinegar with 1/2 cup of water and substitute for the frozen fruit juice

Raspberry-Lemon Shortbread Tart
From Every Day with Rachael Ray
February-March 2006
8 Servings
Prep Time: 30 min; Cook Time: 50 min
3 cups frozen raspberries (1 pound)
1 stick plus 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
Zest and juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup juice)
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
No need to get out your rolling pin or even grease the pan for this dessert. Just use your fingers to mix the shortbread dough, then dump it straight into a cake pan, press down and bake.

1. Drain the raspberries in a strainer set over a bowl. Preheat the oven to 400°. Using your fingers, combine the butter, 1/2 cup of the sugar and 1 1/2 cups of the flour and blend together until coarse crumbs form. Pour the mixture into an ungreased nonstick 9-inch springform or cake pan and press down evenly to form a crust. Bake the shortbread crust until lightly golden, about 20 minutes.

2. Remove the shortbread from the oven and reduce the temperature to 325°. Scatter the drained raspberries evenly over the baked shortbread.

3. Beat the eggs with the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar until thick and pale yellow. Whisk in the lemon zest, the lemon juice and the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Pour the lemon cream over the raspberries and bake the tart until the custard is set, about 30 minutes. Let cool, then dust with confectioners' sugar.

You can replace the raspberries with your favorite fruit—or even pieces of chocolate. Go all the way and swap a teaspoon of vanilla extract for the lemon juice and zest in the quick custard.

My notes: Based on the mistakes I made the first try...Make sure the berries are thawed and drained well. Don't make the custard while the crust is baking! While the crust is COOLING I made the custard, and then put the berries on the crust just before pouring the custard on top. Baking time was a bit longer than the 30 minutes stated, too.
Also...I made the shortbread in the food processor rather than using my fingers. Worked perfectly.

Linda