Old World Raspberry Bars

~Jackie~

One of the best things about marrying into my husbands family was inheriting his family’s traditional delicious recipes. Last year for Christmas his mom gave me a handmade recipe book with all her favorite recipes, as well as recipes passed down from their Grandma and Great Grandma. I was so thankful for this gift because it allows me to cook my husband some of his favorite meals he had growing up. I think more than half of the recipe book was filled with desserts – the Schultz’ have quite a sweet tooth and have nailed down the recipes for some of the best cookies that I have ever had. The first Christmas that I spent with Steve I got to try an array of these cookies and fell in love with all of them! But, these raspberry bars are by far my favorite; I love the buttery crumble on top of the sweet raspberry jam and nutty crust. 

I especially enjoy this recipe because it requires very few ingredients and it’s a bar, not a cookie, so you just throw everything in a pan and bake it – more my style since I’m not a big baker. Steve and I both made the mistake thinking that these bars must be kind of healthy because they are made with raspberry jam, but unfortunately were very wrong. Steve said that growing up his mom would make these and he would have them for breakfast or lunch because he was eating fruit! However, the raspberry jam is just a small layer sandwiched in between two layers of buttery buttery crust. Nothing wrong with that though, it’s the holidays and it’s called dessert for a reason. Swimsuit season is far far away, lets just all indulge together. 

The best part about these bars is that the crust and the crumble are the same mixture! And although the raspberry preserves can be homemade, store bought works just great. To make the bars, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease the bottom and sides of a glass 8 inch square pan – this step is very important because the bars can easily stick to the bottom (despite the amount of butter in the recipe!) To make the crumb mixture, combine flour, sugar, chopped pecans (I put mine in the food processor to get them really fine), butter, and one egg, in a large bowl and beat at low speed until mix is crumbly (2-3 minutes). Reserve about 1 1/2 cups of the mixture and press remaining crumb mix in bottom of baking pan. Spread the raspberry preserves within 1/2 inch of edges of crust. Crumble the reserved mixture over the preserves and bake for 45-50 minutes until top is lightly browned. Let the bars cool in the pan – they are much easier to cut when they are completely cool and firm. Hope you enjoy this delicious treat as much as we do! Happy Holidays!