So Many Raspberries

A friend of mine invited me to pick raspberries from her garden last weekend. We picked for a little over an hour and I ended up with six pints of beautiful ripe red raspberries. They smell heavenly if you love raspberries like I do. The first pint was eaten fresh that day, first in a lunch fruit bowl with peaches and then in a kale and broccoli and Brussel sprout slaw salad for dinner. That left me with five pints  to play with...and then I came down with a summer cold or flu or something and was out of action for a couple of days.

The raspberries weren't getting any better for the wait, so I made a bar cookie with them, a variation of an old favorite recipe that you make in a saucepan. They turned out really well, with a moist, almost cake-like texture and just a hint of almond flavor in the batter, plus the rich flavor and fragrance of raspberries, and the delight of sliced almonds. The sparkling sugar gave the tops a bit of crunch and sweetness. If you prefer, you could give them a glaze of lemon juice and confectioners sugar. Since you bake these in a 9" x 13" pan you get quite a few cookie bars.

Fresh Raspberry Saucepan Fruit Bars

1 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
¼ cup buttermilk
1 pint fresh raspberries, rinsed and blotted with paper towel, divided
1 tablespoon sliced almonds (optional)

1 tablespoon sparkling sugar (optional)

Melt butter in saucepan. Add sugar and stir to combine. Cool mixture, then add the eggs; beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients, almond extract, and buttermilk and mix well. 

Take 12 - 18 of the berries and reserve. Stir rest of fruit into the batter, gently. Spread batter in greased 9” x 13” pan, making top as level as possible. Fruit may break up a bit when you spread the batter...that's O.K. Distribute the reserved raspberries over the top of the batter. Scatter almonds and sugar evenly over batter, if using.

Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for 25 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool in pan. Cut into 2” x 1” bars or into squares. If desired, omit the sparkling sugar. When the bars are cool, drizzle with a glaze made from 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar and as much fresh lemon juice as needed to make a drippy glaze. Let glaze harden before serving.