Raspberry Crumb Bars
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Easiest Raspberry Crumb Bars made with preserves and fresh raspberries sandwiched between a layer of buttery, flaky crust and a sweet, oatmeal topping, plus a glaze for good measure!
Try these recipes next! Almond & Raspberry Jam Cookies, Raspberry Coconut Smoothie, and Raspberry Lemonade Bars.
For more easy berry desserts, head on over to my popular posts for Strawberry Cobbler, Mixed Berry Pizza with Vanilla Glaze, and Blueberry Pie Bars.
My son has an affinity for all things lemon. From lemonade to cream cheese lemon bars, and every lemon thing in between, he’ll gladly devour it. What does this have to do with these raspberry crumb bars? Well, not all of us love lemon as much as he does and we needed a break.
I felt like it was my turn to choose dessert and the raspberries looked so good at the farmers market I couldn’t resist! And sometimes that’s just how a dessert is born.
How This Recipe Works
The reasons why this raspberry dessert works are simple, and so is the recipe!
Whole raspberries — The combination of whole raspberries and raspberry preserves makes for the perfect sweet/tart flavor and texture.
Crumb topping — Let’s face it, crumb bars aren’t complete without the crumb part right? This one is a winner with part butter, part sugar, plus flour and oats for crunch and texture.
Simple instructions — In less than an hour you can put together the crust, filling, topped, and glazed and have it baked and cooled and in your belly.
Customizable — No raspberries? No problem! You can substitute just about any berry you have on hand.
Here’s How You Make It
Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees, then line an 8×8-inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper.
Preparing the Crust
- First, combine melted butter, sugar, and extract in a large bowl and stir.
- Add the salt and flour to the butter mixture and stir again.
- Finally, press the dough into your baking pan and put it in the oven for 10 minutes.
Preparing the Filling
- For the filling, you’ll stir and gently mash half of the fresh raspberries into the raspberry preserves.
- Take the crust out of the oven after 10 minutes.
- Then, take the raspberry spread and put it on top of the prepared crust. Add to the top of the filling the rest of the fresh raspberries.
Preparing the Crumb Topping
- Now move on to topping by first dicing the chilled butter into small cubes.
- Next, in a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, oats, flour, and salt. Add the butter and mash with a fork (or pulse in a food processor) until coarse crumbs form. Sprinkle the topping over filling.
Bake and Cool
- Put the whole dessert back into the oven for 25 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven and allow the raspberry crumb bars to cool before cutting them into squares. (You can pop it into the fridge to speed this up.)
- While the dessert is cooling, prepare the glaze by stirring together the powdered sugar, vanilla or almond extract, and enough milk to make the glaze easily pourable. Drizzle over cooled bars and serve.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are two camps of thought on berry washing: wash and don’t wash. I am camp rinse (which I guess is halfway between the two?). I don’t use any special soap or fruit wash, but I do rinse them under cold water for a minute or so to get off surface dirt. I also always pat them dry because you won’t want that excess water in your dessert.
You can also soak them in a vinegar solution (¾ water and ¼ vinegar) before rinsing if you prefer. Still pat dry though after rinsing.
Expert Tips
I learned all the tricks of making this raspberry dessert the best it can be so you don’t have to!
- If you are using a food processor to pulse together the crumb topping, be sure you don’t process it too much. You’ll still want to see (and taste) bits of whole oatmeal in the topping.
- If you think you’re going to want more than the 12-16 bars that this recipe will yield, you can easily double it and put it in a 9×13 pan. Just be sure to cook them an additional 5-10 minutes in the oven.
- Need to eat the berry bars ASAP? Put a towel under the hot baking dish and place it in the fridge to cool off faster. No need to reheat — they are amazing at room temperature or chilled.
- While you don’t have to make the glaze, I think it adds a lot to the bars. Other glaze options include: a maple glaze (like the one used on my Apple Slab Pie), lemon glaze, or cream cheese icing.
Best Cookie and Bar Recipes
- Snow-Capped Lemon Cookies (Disneyland inspired and oh, so SO good)
- Cherry Garcia Cookies (better than the ice cream I dare say)
- Softest Chewiest Snickerdoodles (a pillow of cinnamon-sugar lovin)
- Cream Cheese Lemon Bars (ooey gooey lemony perfection) or go crazy with these Strawberry Lemon Bars
- Salted Caramel Pecan Pie Bars (pecan pie, but wayyyyy better)
- Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting (you’re welcome.)
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a rating below!
Raspberry Crumb Bars
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup butter, melted
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons almond or vanilla extract, or 1 teaspoon of each
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cup flour
Filling
- 1 cup raspberry preserves
- 1 cup fresh raspberries, divided
Crumb topping
- 8 tablespoons butter, chilled
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup old fashioned rolled oats
- ¾ cup flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla , or almond extract
- 3-6 tablespoons milk, ,as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line an 8×8 inch square baking pan with foil or parchment paper.
Prepare the crust
- In a large bowl combine melted butter, sugar, and extract. Stir together.
- Add salt and flour and stir.
- Press dough into prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
Prepare the filling
- Stir and gently mash half of the fresh raspberries into the raspberry preserves.
- Spread filling onto prepared crust. Top with remaining fresh raspberries.
Prepare the crumb topping
- Dice the chilled butter into small cubes.
- In a medium bowl stir together brown sugar, oats, flour, and salt. Add butter and mash with a fork (or pulse in a food processor!) til coarse crumbs form. Sprinkle over filling.
Finish it up
- Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool before cutting into bars. (You can pop it into the fridge to speed this up).
- While cooling, prepare the glaze by stirring together the powdered sugar, extract, and enough milk to make the glaze easily pourable. Drizzle over bars and serve.
Notes
- When made as written, this recipe makes 12-16 bars just depending on how large you cut the bars at the end. It can easily be doubled in a 9×13 pan for more bars (they’ll be thicker and need 5-10 minutes longer in the oven).
- If you’re impatient, like me, you can pop the pan into the oven (place a dish towel underneath if the pan is still hot) to speed up the cooling process. Bonus: these taste AMAZING chilled!
- The glaze is optional but definitely recommended – it just takes the whole dessert to the next level and looks super pretty!
- These bars would work great with blackberries or even a combination of both raspberries and blackberries.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These taste very good, but the lower crust layer was very oily and I feel like there’s too much butter. Also, they all broke when I tried to cut them after refrigeration – do I need to let them warm back up before cutting? Any advice is appreciated, because they do taste very good and I’d love to improve my method for next time!
I’m sorry to hear about that :/ it sounds like the butter didn’t fully absorb or the crust wasn’t baked long enough to fully set and caramelize. You can try to mix and bake it longer or cut the butter and only use 3/4 cup. AS for the bars breaking, if you choose to cool them in the fridge, letting them warm to room temperature again before cutting would help, yes. I hope these turn out better for you the next time around!
Hi, there! Can’t wait to make these gluten free for a high tea I’m having with a couple of friends! Question…how much in advance can you make these? How do you store them (I imagine in the fridge) and how long will they last? Thanks in advance!
You can make these 2-3 days in advance but for the best texture, I would serve them within 1-2 days 🙂 You can store them at room temperature in an air tight container for 2 days, in the fridge for 3-5 days, they can even be frozen for up to 3 months 🙂
The combination of raspberry preserves with fresh raspberries was the exact texture I was looking for. I added a Tbsp of lemon juice to the raspberry mixture to brighten it up a bit. They tasted fantastic but I think next time I will use a little bit less butter as the dough in the middle of the pan was very soft. I made these as a “test batch” for a birthday treat for my sister. My boyfriend has already eaten 3 of them after only letting them cool for 20 minutes. I’m certain my sister is going to go bonkers over these!
These are sooooo good. I’ve made them a few times now! They smell amazing while they’re baking too!
So thrilled to hear your positive feedback, Tiffany! Thank you!
Is the crust soft or hard like a shortbread cookie?
It is more soft!
ALTHOUGH the flavors were good, i QUESTION the amount of buttEr in this recipe. I had to bake thE Bars twice as long and i still frlt they were under cooked. CAN you confirm your numbers
super easy and fantastic tasting recipe! Had freshly picked raspberries and this was a winner with friends. Thank you for your consistently good recipes!
Thanks for your feedback! So glad you enjoyed this recipe!!