as promised, i’m sharing the recipe for the delicious raspberry bars i made for the picnic last weekend. these bars came out of our favorite food magazine vegetarian times, and were absolutely amazing, combining some of my favorite foods: oats, cinnamon, and raspberries. mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about them!
i made a couple of changes to the veggie times recipe – the main change was using fresh raspberries and mushing them with a fork instead of using the raspberry jam that was called for in the original version. i found the fresh raspberries gave the bars a delicious and full flavor, but were a little soggy from the extra water in fresh berries vs jam.
so, when i had the occasion to make the bars again this weekend for my sister-in-law’s house warming party (yes, i liked them enough to make twice in one week), i used raspberry jam. the jam bars were a lot crispier (the top was especially crunchy, with the texture of granola rather than soft oatmeal cookie), but they had more of a hint-of-raspberry flavor than a full bodied, how-did-you-pack-this-much-raspberry-flavor-into-such-a-little-bar taste. so, my dear readers, when you make this recipe you’ll have to decide: crispy and crunchy with raspberry aftertaste or soft cookie, packed with raspberry deliciousness. good luck with the choice – i still can’t decide how i would make them the next time.
