Black Raspberry Vanilla Cream Bars

 

With black raspberries in season and my plan to not freeze any this year we have been enjoying a lot of fresh eating, sharing them with family, and of course a few experiments :).

 

My Mom makes a fabulous Black Raspberry Pie with a creamy layer between the filling and crumbs that is amazing. I decided to convert the pie into a bar recipe and discovered that it was indeed an improvement! IMHO.

 

I really, really like the shortbread crust versus a plain pie crust. I enjoy the addition of vanilla bean contents and an egg in the creamy layer, and I like that the raspberry and creamy layers are more evenly divided than they are in pie form. And I like the color, good food should always be pretty :).

 

For the crust:

1½ cups all purpose flour

¾ cup almond meal

9 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1/3 cup vanilla sugar, (or plain sugar)

½ teaspoon salt

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and grate cold butter into the bowl on top of flour mixture and mix by hand until fine crumbs are achieved. Press into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of a non stick sprayed 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Set aside. If you have crumbs remaining, which I did, add them to the crumb topping recipe below.

 

For the creamy layer:

10 ounces cream cheese, room temp.

¾ cup sour cream

½ cup sugar

1 egg

1 vanilla bean, contents only
1½ Tablespoons all purpose flour

Mix with a mixer until smooth. Spread evenly onto crust.

 

4 cups prepared Black

Raspberry Pie Filling

Carefully spread over the creamy layer without pushing the white layer around too much.

 

Crumb topping:

1 cup flaky pie crust flour

½ cup vanilla sugar, (or plain sugar)

4 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter, grated

Remaining crumbs from the crust

Mix all ingredients together and sprinkle evenly over the pie filling.

 

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

 

 

                                                                                     

 

I have not felt lots of inspiration in the kitchen lately. When your heart aches for a family member who is very ill and for the loved one caring for them, food prep is the last thing on your mind. But people, especially kids, still get hungry and need to be fed. So I keep feeding them :) just not anything worth sharing here because I keep it very simple. Thank you to a friend (you know who you are) who recently shared a meal with us. You were/are a blessing!

 

 

♥Blessings to all who visit here!♥