Raspberry Bars

One of our most requested recipes is for Joey's raspberry bars. These have to be the most delicious and dangerous things he makes. He just made a batch for Karolyn's shower and thank goodness we gave them all to Gregory because otherwise I could kiss my Weight Watcher's good-bye for the week.

There aren't a lot of ingredients in these, but sometimes it's the simplest things are taste the best. While Joey almost always sticks to raspberry preserves for this, he did make them with the lemon marmelade I made a few weeks ago and those were equally as good. He did, however have to remove all the rind in the marmelade so I don't know how often one would want to do that.  I think these are something that are perfect just the way they are - simple and delicious.

Ingredients

Crumb Mixture

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 cup Land O Lakes® Butter, softened
• 1 Land O Lakes® All-Natural Egg

Filling

• 3/4 cup raspberry preserves*

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. 
2. Combine all crumb mixture ingredients in large bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 
3. Reserve 2 cups crumb mixture; set aside.
4. Press remaining crumb mixture on bottom of greased 8-inch square baking pan. 
5. Spread preserves to within 1/2 inch of edge. 
6. Crumble reserved crumb mixture over preserves.
7. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until lightly browned. 
8. Cool completely; cut into bars.

* You can substitute any type of preserves, but I am still partial to raspberry.