Pasta Frola (shortcake with jam)

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup of butter, frozen
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Jam. Any flavor.

Preheat oven to 350.

Put in the bowl, flour, sugar, baking powder; and salt. Whisk to combine.

Grate frozen butter into flour mix and use finger tips to toss butter into flour mixture until well combined. Do not mash the butter into the flour.

Mix In beaten egg until dough is fully moistened.

Separate out 1/4 of the dough.

Butter a 9″ square baking dish and press the remaining 3/4 of dough into baking dish. Pat or roll out the reserved dough with some extra flour and place on top in any pattern you want (lattice or cut out shapes and place on jam).

Spoon a layer of jam over the top. Make it as think or as thick as you like. I put about a full 8 oz jar of jam on the dough.

Pat out remaining 1/4 dough and cut into long strips. Cover top of jam in a crossing pattern partly covering the jam. You can also use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and lay across the top.

Bake 25 minutes.

Serve after it cools about 1/2 hour or more.

I make this when my Argentinian father-in-law comes to visit as it’s a traditional cake with coffee there. It’s very similar to our coffee cakes but maybe a little less sweet.

I will often do apricot on one side and raspberry on the other because I think that’s the prettiest. I also like apricot jam. At Thanksgiving, I use homemade cranberry jam (I always make a small batch of cranberry refrigerator jam in the fall). In Argentina, they use quince. This is often eaten with coffee or maté. It’s very fast to make, which is a bonus for me because I’m not a fan of baking.