Raspberry Almond Cookie Bars

Before we bought our place we live in now, we rented this little farm house where we were completely spoiled. We had free reign over a nicely established raspberry patch in the back. It was huge. During raspberry picking season it would take me about an hour and a half to pick the whole patch, and that was picking about every 2-3 days. I was in heaven because I am a huge lover of raspberries.

I also love to make treats, especially on Sundays and, with my girls when possible. On Sundays we don't do much else other than go to church and maybe an occasional family dinner, so I like to do something special with my girls. My oldest said she would make cookies with me the other Sunday and when I asked her what kind she wanted to make, she said raspberry. I was at a little of a loss because I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to make them. I've seen raspberry flavored icings on cookies, raspberry chips and even raspberry jam, but I wanted that pure, unadulterated raspberry flavor that comes from using real berries.

Well, I altered a simple bar cookie recipe and this is what I came up with. They were amazing! I was kicking myself for only making a very small batch because they didn't last more than 4 or 5 hours. My husband said he liked them as much as I like brownies. Now that's saying something.

Raspberry Almond Cookie Bars
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup almonds (slivered, sliced or roughly chopped)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup fresh raspberries (if using frozen, thaw and let drain)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray, line with parchment paper. then spray again.

Combine flour, oats, baking powder, salt and almonds in a medium bowl. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy; 2-3 minutes. Add egg and almond extract and mix to incorporate. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated.

Spread about 2/3 of the dough into the prepared baking pan. The dough is pretty sticky, you could use a spatula to help you spread it out or even just drop it by the spoonful very close together. When it cooks, it will all come together anyway.

Gently lay raspberries evenly over the first cookie layer, then drop the rest of the dough by spoon fulls over the raspberry layer.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes in pan, then gently pull them out with the parchemnt paper and let them completely cool on a rack.

Linked to...
Recipe Swap Thursday @ Prairie Story
Sweets For A Saturday @ Sweet As Sugar Cookies
It's A Keeper Thursday @ It's A Keeper