Raspberry and Blueberry Bars

I enjoy eating every treat that I bake but these go into my favorite file. I have a REALLY difficult time leaving these alone. To me, these are perfect. And they are so very simple to make. I think everyone must have the ingredients in their pantry to throw these together. The recipe calls for a jam filling but I had so many fresh berries left over from our 4th of July BBQ, that I made a quick jam like sauce out of them and used that. I made one batch of blueberry filling and one batch of raspberry filling. Then I threw a handful of fresh berries into the filling as well. Imagine the possibility of filling flavors! I have an apricot/pineapple jam in my refrigerator right now, I bet that would be delicious. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. It had near perfect reviews. I feel like I'm eating somewhat healthy when I'm eating these. There are a lot of oats & berries in them. Yes, there is a lot of butter as well but, the oats...the berries! Yummy!

The crust and top crumb mixture are one in the same. Half gets pressed onto the bottom of the pan then half gets crumbled on top of the filling. I added a dash of cinnamon to mine.

The original recipe makes one 8x8 pan. Ha! I could eat that in one sitting. I made TWO double recipes and that filled two 13x9 inch pans. One pan is blueberry and one is raspberry.

The blueberry bars were awesome but I'm a raspberry lover! These were sooo good and slightly tart. I didn't put a lot of sugar into the raspberry filling.

Delicious Raspberry Oatmeal Cookie Bars

Adapted from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 8 inch square pan, and line with greased foil.
2. Combine brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and rolled oats. Rub in the butter using your hands or a pastry blender to form a crumbly mixture. Press 2 cups of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the jam to within 1/4 inch of the edge. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the top, and lightly press it into the jam.
3. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool before cutting into bars.