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Mabrousheh are the most delicious crumble bars filled with apricot jam! The tender orange-scented shortbread crust is topped with your favorite jam. Use the remaining shortbread dough for the grated topping!
Golden perfection!
Mabrousheh or jam-filled streusel bars have the potential of becoming your favorite bars of all time.
The most common style of Mabrousheh are apricot crumble bars. They are scented with zest of oranges, vanilla extract, and coconut that make up the chewy shortbread crust. Then we top it with a thick layer of jam – choose strawberry, apricot, figs, or dates. Though the coconut is something that not everyone uses, I have made a couple of modern modifications, to enhance the natural flavor of the apricots. It sets these bars apart from other streusel snack bar recipes.
In the past, I’ve made other crumble bars with jam and nut butter (think cashew butter, sunflower butter, almond butter, etc.). I’ve even make apple crumble bars. But these apricot Mabrousheh still remain my favorite version. They’re slightly thicker bars and have such a delicate flavor.
Literally translated the word Mabrousheh means ‘grated’ referring to the portion of the base dough that we save and grate as the topping of the bar before we bake them in the oven. The come to us from the Levant region, including countries like Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine.
So if you two love to use tons of apricots preserves if your recipes, I think you’ll really these delicate shortbread jam bars. These are liked my kids and adults alike. You’ll really love these delicate shortbread jam bars.
Ingredients for Mabrousheh Recipe
- All-purpose flour: you’ll need 2 cups flour for this recipe.
- Baking Powder: is the leavening agent. It will give these bars a gentle lift.
- Cinnamon: just a quart tsp gives the dough a bit of flavor
- Kosher Salt: helps balance the sweetness in the recipe
- Desiccated Coconut: you’ll need 1½ cup coconut. This will give the bars a sweet and nutty flavor.
- Butter: I use actual butter for this recipe – no margarine or shortening please. We’ll use two sticks of butter. Soften it at room temperature so that it blends easier with the sugar. I prefer salted butter for all my baking, but unsalted butter works – just depends on your dietary preferences!
- Granulated sugar: I use cane sugar, but regular sugar works too.
- Eggs: binds the ingredients together in the cookie dough batter
- Vanilla Extract: adds flavor
- Almond Extract: adds flavor
- Zest of Oranges: optional orange zest gives the dough a nice floral fragrance that pairs well with the apricot jam. I use 1 tbsp. But lemons work here too.
- Preserves: Use homemade or store-bought preserves. I use good quality apricot preserves that I imagine baked under the hot Mediterranean sun. Matter of fact: apricots are also a really good source of fiber. But I digress, any fruit jam, date paste or even fig preserves would work here.
Other fruit dessert recipes to try
- Key Lime Pie Bars
- Creamy Lemon Squares
- Mocha Cup Almond Butter
- French Apple Pie
- Fruit Tarts with Pastry Cream
Mabrousheh (Apricot Crumble Bars)
Ingredients
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ cups desiccated coconut
- 1 cup salted butter softened to room temp
- ¾ cup cane sugar or granulated
- 2 large eggs
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract or more vanilla
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest
- 8-10 ounce jar apricot preserves or other fruit jam, see notes
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar for topping
Instructions
- PREP: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 9×13 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add kosher salt and coconut, whisk and set aside for now.
- WHIP: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy. Then add the eggs one at a time allowing each to incorporated before adding the next. Add vanilla, almond extract, and orange zest and continue to mix until combined.
- ADD DRY INGREDIENTS: Gradually add the flour mixture to the stand mixer with it running on low speed until a dough forms. Don’t over mix.
- CHILL THE DOUGH: grab a sheet of plastic wrap, remove ¼ of the mix and make a thick disk. Place it on the plastic wrap and pop the reserved dough in the freezer for 15-20 minutes to firm up.
- PRESS: the remaining dough into the parchment lined baking dish into a flat, even layer.
- SPREAD: If your jam is stiff, zap in the microwave for 20 seconds to help loosen and spread this easier. Drop dollops or small pieces of the apricot preserves over the shortbread layer and spread. You’ll want to leave a small ¼-inch border so that the jam doesn’t burn on the sides.
- GRATE: When the frozen dough is cold, using the larger side of a box grater, grate the rest of the frozen dough over the bars and spread it evenly over the surface of the jam. Alternately, you can break it with your hands into small pea-sized pieces and drop it over the preserves if you don’t have a grater.
- BAKE: Bake the bars in the oven for 25-28 minutes on the middle rack or until the top is slightly golden brown on top. You can broil the bars on the top rack for 30-45 seconds to brown the top if need be, but I didn't. Let the bars cool for 30 minutes in the pan before attempting to remove. Cut into bars and dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Notes
- Preserves quantity: I’ve made this bars several times and prefer them less sweet, so I use 8 ounces of 1 cups fruit jam. Feel free to use up to 10 ounces if you like your desserts on the sweeter side!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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