Fresh Raspberry Bars

I have a small collection of raspberry plants that have done amazingly well this year. They are tall, lush with foliage and have a sizable crop of raspberries that the chipmunks and birds have left for me. I knew I wanted to bake something with them, and the internet eventually told me that raspberry bars would be a good idea. However, most of the recipes I came across used frozen, not fresh raspberries. I finally found one that called for fresh raspberries, but offered a frozen raspberry option as well. Fresh it is!

With a recipe selection made and reduction completed to make just two full size raspberry bars, it was time to gather ingredients. Down the hill I went to my small raspberry patch. 

Raspberries have got a lot going on.

First, red is not the only color that raspberries come in. There is, of course, the equally common black raspberry, but there are also raspberries that are purple, yellow and golden, each with its own unique flavor profile. Not only are the flavors different depending on the color, but so are the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. 

Today we’ll focus on the red raspberry, since that’s what I had in my raspberry patch.

Red raspberries are high in antioxidants. You may have heard this word before, and hopefully you remember it as a good thing. Because it is. Antioxidants get rid of toxins in your body, some of which are produced naturally and some of which are taken in as a result of your environment (think wildfire smoke) and eating choices (that store-bought packaged, unhealthy, yet tasty snack). 

In addition, anthocyanin, the pigment that makes raspberries red, can also decrease inflammation. Raspberries are a good source of potassium, a mineral needed by the body, but one the body doesn’t produce. Potassium is important because it helps maintain the fluid levels inside your cells (as opposed to sodium, which maintains fluid levels outside your cells). No, raspberries don’t have nearly as much potassium as a banana, but they’ve got other things going for them. Like they are higher in fiber and Vitamin C!

You can usually buy red raspberries in your local grocery store year round, but getting them fresh off the canes always tastes so much better. There are often local growers of raspberries that invite you to come pick your own. This is a great resource if you don’t have your own collection. If you want to grow your own, there are a number of different varieties to choose from, but my favorite are the thornless simply because I don’t get all scratched up in the picking process. There are also nearly thornless raspberries and greenupside.com explains and describes some of the varieties of each.

My small patch contains thornless raspberries, but I don’t know which variety as they’ve been passed on and their provenance has been lost. Ironically I have to step through the very thorny wild black raspberries to get to them, but that also is such a good crop that I can’t bear to cut them back.

While my raspberries were in various states of growth, ripeness and decay from all of the stormy weather recently, I managed to pick enough for my small batch of raspberry bars. 

The recipe for Fresh Raspberry Bars that I reduced comes from savorthebest.com. And while I specifically chose this one because it used fresh raspberries, the “notes” section includes directions to increase the cornstarch by 1 ½ tablespoons (for a full batch) if you’re using frozen ones. But here is the recipe for two Fresh Raspberry bars and here is how I made it happen.

ingredients

crust/topping

30.6g all-purpose flour

15.1g oats

36.2g light brown sugar

0.2g baking soda

0.15g salt

19g melted butter

filling

81.6g fresh raspberries

16.8g sugar

5.6g cornstarch

0.34g lemon zest

2.38g lemon juice

directions

• Preheat the oven to 350⁰ F and grease your pan

• Stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt

• Mix in the melted butter

• Press ⅔ of the crust/topping mixture into the pan evenly and baked approximately 12 minutes, or until it is slightly puffy

• While it is baking, put the raspberries into a bowl

• In a separate bowl combine the sugar, cornstarch and lemon zest until blended

• Add the lemon juice to the raspberry and then fold into the sugar/cornstarch mixture

• Let sit for 5-10 minutes

  

  raspberries before and then after the addition of lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch.

• Spread the filling over the pre-baked crust and sprinkle the remaining crust/topping mixture over the top

• Bake about 25-30 minutes or until the juices bubble at the edges and the crust is a golden brown

• Cool completely before slicing. This is actually an important step. This will let the bars firm up and make them much easier to transport from the pan to your mouth…I mean plate.

You’ll notice that I cut my bars into four pieces. While I calculated correctly for two servings, I wanted them to last longer so cut them smaller. They had a beautiful tang that accompanied the sweetness. And a really nice crisp bottom layer from pre-baking the crust that paired well with the soft sink of your teeth as you bit down from the top. I really think the fresh raspberries made these bars better. But any raspberry bars are better than no raspberry bars, so use whatever you have on hand.