Raspberry Crumble Bars
I started this recipe like I always do: looking at the top Google hits for “raspberry crumble bars” and judging them all.
The recipe
Yield: 16 bars
Time: 1 ½ hours, plus 1 hour cooling time
Ingredients
Filling:
12 oz (340 g) frozen raspberries
¼ c (55 g) sugar
¼ c (28 g) cornstarch
Crust and topping:
2 sticks (1 c or 226 g) salted butter, at room temperature
¾ c (163 g) sugar
1 tsp (7 g) vanilla extract
2 c (250 g) flour
1 c (100 g) old fashioned (rolled) oats
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Instructions
Filling:
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line either a square 8-inch pan or a rectangular 2-quart baking dish with parchment paper. Cut slits in the corners of the parchment so that it lays flat in the dish.
2. In a small bowl, microwave the raspberries until defrosted, 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each round in the microwave (about 1 minute total).
3. Add the sugar and cornstarch to the berries and gently stir to combine. Set aside.
Crust and topping:
1. Place the butter, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3–5 minutes.
2. Combine the flour, oats, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and stir to combine.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and mix on low speed until everything comes together and forms a uniform dough.
4. Pat ⅔ of the dough into the pan, spreading it evenly.
5. Pour the raspberry filling on top of the dough.
6. Break the remaining dough into crumbs and sprinkle evenly over top of the berries.
7. Bake until the crumbs on top are golden brown and the filling is bubbling an inch from the center, 40–50 minutes.
8. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature (an hour or two).
9. When the bars are cool, lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper.
10. Remove the parchment and cut the bars into 16 even squares.
11. The bars will keep, tightly sealed, at room temperature for a few days. They will lose the crunch they had straight from the oven if you store them, but they’re still delicious.
Notes and tips
Fresh raspberries aren’t flavorful out of season, and they’re expensive, so I use frozen instead. The best part: you can make crumble bars all year!
The filling needs to be bubbling when it comes out of the oven so it sets. Cornstarch activates to thicken liquids when it boils. If the crumble bars don’t get hot enough to bubble, they’ll be soupy and fall apart.
The bars won’t hold together if you try to cut them when they’re hot, so give yourself enough time to let them cool.
The story
None of the recipes I researched were close to the raspberry crumble bar I wanted to eat.
Most were just shortbread with jam on top, but that’s just a Linzer cookie. If I wanted a Linzer cookie, I would have Googled that instead.
One blogger advertised how very soft her bars were. I could just made a cobbler if I wanted them soft. Crumble bars deserve some texture, a little crunch on the top and bottom and a chewy middle that holds its shape.
Almost every recipe used raspberry jam in the filling, which is a cop-out. Store-bought jam (except for Trader Joe’s organic reduced sugar raspberry preserves) is too sweet and doesn’t taste like raspberry. Baked goods should actually taste like that fruit.
The few recipes that didn’t called for jam called for cooking the filling on the stove before baking the bars, but that extra step is just laziness on the developer’s part. There’s no need for that.
I did things differently from every other source out there. The base for my bars is like a crisp shortbread on the outside and a soft, chewy cookie in the middle, with a generous amount of oats for texture. The filling calls for real raspberries (use frozen for the best flavor; out-of-season fresh ones at the grocery store are lame) and I’d treat them like pie filling, using cornstarch to thicken them as they baked in the oven.
It took me only two tries (a new personal record) and I’d made myself the raspberry crumble bars I want to eat. I hope you want to eat them, too.
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I totally agree that they should not be super soft and need a topping. I love how you found a way to keep the fruit but not make the recipe take forever
These bars were a big hit at my memorial weekend party!! Thank you for the recipe, Megan!