Chocolate Raspberry Bars with White Chocolate and Almonds

People who know me well know that I'm a terrible baker.  Even though I'm a fairly logical person and you'd think that the exactness of baking would be a perfect fit for me, I continue to struggle with anything that requires turning on an oven and mixing wet and dry ingredients.  Needless to say, when I do find a baking recipe that I can actually manage, I embrace it and hold on for life.  This past weekend I was invited to a friend's house for lunch after church so I volunteered to bring dessert.  I knew that I had to make something good since she's also a foodie and likes to cook and so I decided on Giada De Laurentiis' Chocolate Raspberry Bars with White Chocolate and Almonds (a recipe that involves baking but one that I can actually make).  The name sounds fancier than it really is because it's basically just brownie mix with some sort of fruit jam layered into the brownie batter that's then cooked and drizzled with white chocolate and almond slivers on the top.  Still, I've made the recipe a couple of times before and it never fails to impress so I knew it was the perfect thing to bring.

Here's a picture of the brownie batter with the layered fruit jam (in this case, grape jam):

 

I basically just mixed the brownie batter according to the recipe and then poured the jam in lines after it had cooled.  I then ran a knife through the lines from left to right to create the pattern.

Here's what the brownies look like after they're baked:

 

It's kind of cool how the jam leaves deep pockets in the brownie mix as it cooks but doesn't sink to the bottom.

Here's the homemade double broiler I made to melt the white chocolate for the top:

 

I learned the hard way when I first attempted this recipe that white chocolate chips have a lot more milk solids in them than regular milk chocolate chips so you really have to use low heat and stir it a lot to get it to melt properly.  The first time I tried melting white chocolate the heat was too high and I didn't stir often enough and it turned into a hard mess of unmeltable goo.  Needless to say, I got it right this time because here's a picture of the final product:

I took the brownies to lunch and people enjoyed them.  Now that I've mastered that recipe, I've decided to try something a little harder - Giada's Peanut Butter Cookies with Blackberry Jam recipe.  Stay tuned for an update on how it goes, maybe I'll become a baker after all...