Gooseberry Squares

Utterly delicious seasonal squares. Gooey and crisp at the same time with a lovely gooseberry tartness. I made these because I absolutely love gooseberries and couldn't find many recipes on how to use them other than the few I already knew. For the uninitiated, gooseberries are like bitter green marbles...I know tempting...But, once you treat them with sugar and heat they given out a unique taste that's hard to describe. Kind of like if you crossed a kiwi with some rhubarb...but nicer.

• Ready In: 1 hr 5 mins
• Serves: 6
• Yields: 12 squares

Ingredients

• Filling

• 4  cups gooseberries (topped n'tailed and washed)
• 2  large eggs
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄4 cup self raising flour
• 1  cup caster sugar

• Biscuit base

• 1  cup plain flour
• 1⁄3 cup icing sugar
• 1⁄3 cup butter (I use salted but margarine or unsalted also work)

Directions

1. Grease a 13x9 pan with butter, then cover in tin foil and grease foil again wtih butter.
2. For the base, sift together the dry ingredients and then cut in the butter until the mixture is like coarse crumbs. Press onto tin foil. Bake in an oven at 180' for 10 minutes or until pale golden in colour.
3. Remove from oven.
4. Mix together eggs, sugar, vanilla and flour. Then you can either roughly chop gooseberries and mix in or toss in gooseberries whole and mulch up with your hands (latter gives a more integrated flavour but it is messy).
5. Pour wet mix onto base and put back in the oven for approx 35 minutes or until the top is nicely firm and the berries are showing up brown in places.
6. Enjoy!