Blackberry Pie Bars

Now that I'm back to cooking and baking again, I'm ready to start sharing some of these recipes with you. I made these last week and they were well received and eaten! I printed this recipe off at least 1 or 2 years ago, but just now have gotten around to making it for the first time. Jeremiah said these are the best bars I've made in a long time!

Blackberry Pie Bars
   *from joythebaker.com

Crust & Topping
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
zest of two lemons

Blackberry Filling
4 lg. eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. sour cream
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 (16 oz.) packages frozen blackberries, defrosted and rained
  (You can also use 6 c. fresh blackberries, or 1 (16 oz.) pkg. frozen blackberries and 3 c. fresh)
  **If you're using frozen berries, be sure to defrost and drain the excess liquid. Place the frozen berries on a plate in the refrigerator overnight. They're defrosted and ready for bar baking!

To make the crust and topping - 

Preheat the oven to 350* F. Grease a 9x13-inch pan with butter or cooking spray and set aside. Zest two lemons. (I don't have a zester, so I've always just used my cheese grater. In this case I wish I had made the zest much smaller because with the larger pieces it created some hard/chewy spots in the crust that I didn't really enjoy. So zest small!) Measure out the sugar onto a clean work surface (I just laid down some wax paper on the kitchen table.). Rub the lemon zest into the sugar with a bench scraper or the back of a spoon. Rubbing the zest into the sugar will release the oils from the zest and create a lemon scented sugar.

Combine the lemon sugar, flour, salt, and butter in an electric mixer fit with a paddle attachment. Beat the ingredients on medium speed until the mixture looks dry and crumbly.

Reserve 1 1/2 c. of the crust mixture to use as the topping. Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan. (It seems like a lot of crust and I wondered if the filling would even fit, but it does and it's actually quite a good ratio of crust-to-filling.) Bake the crust for 12-15 minutes until it is golden brown (this took much longer than 15 min. for me, more like 25 min.) Let cool for 10 minutes while you make the filling.

To make the filling - 

Whisk the eggs in a lg. bowl. Add the sugar, sour cream, flour, and salt. Gently fold in the blackberries. Spoon the mixture evenly over the crust. You may have to distribute the blackberries evenly around.

Sprinkle the reserved crust mixture evenly over the filling. Bake for 45 - 55 minutes until the top is lightly browned. Cool for 1 hour before slicing.

I thought these bars were good both warm and cold. I think they would have been great served with some vanilla ice cream warm and then are good straight out of the fridge, nice and cold. I hope you enjoy this recipe!

To life... full of making lemon sugar for the first time!