A no-nonsense buttery raspberry crumble bar recipe, with less than 15 minutes of hands-on prep! Soft shortbread dough is used for both the base of the bars and the crumble on top with gooey raspberry in between.
Sometimes you need an easy dessert win, and these raspberry crumble bars are just that. The same dough is used for the bottom crust and top crumbs! To make it even easier, the raspberry jam can be your favorite store-bought brand. They’re the perfect balance of tart and sweet, and are layers of softness with just a little crunch!
This is a bar recipe for Summer picnics or your holiday dessert table or cookie exchange. You can even throw some fresh raspberries or blackberries on top of the jam for a burst of in-season freshness if you want! Keep on jammin’ with some raspberry jam infused recipes like my raspberry pound cake tiramisu, fig and raspberry challah, and these classic thumbprint cookies!
Table of contents
Why you will love these raspberry crumb bars:
- Easy and ideal for parties. These quick bars are perfect for company, cookie exchanges, holiday gifts, potlucks, or traveling to family.
- Perfect for make-ahead preparation. These bars actually improve overnight. They became a bit softer and the flavors more prominent.
- Soft, buttery shortbread doubles as both the top and bottom crusts with a gooey, raspberry filling in between. One dough, two uses! And, the blind baked bottom crust ensures the base is perfectly crisp and doesn’t get soggy.
Professional Tips
- More is more when it comes to crumble topping. Give every inch a generous amount of streusel! The beauty of this recipe is that it allows for some to sink in and absorb some of the fruit juices and some to stay on top and get nice and crispy.
- Wait for the filling to bubble. Ensure the filling is bubbling before removing the crumble bars from the oven for the best texture.
- Let the bars cool completely before cutting for cleaner slices. The jam might run all over the place if you don’t let your bars set. They’ll still be delicious, but less beautiful.
Ingredients
- Butter: I use unsalted butter for baking, because you want to control the amount of salt you are adding. Every brand is different and it makes adjusting the recipe a challenge.
- Sugar
- Egg Yolk: The egg yolk is here to add fat, moisture and flavor. The fat from the yolk adds richness and helps hydrate the dough without activating the gluten. This keeps the crust soft and tender.
- Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract adds a beautiful flavor itself but it also boosts the flavor of other ingredients around it.
- All-Purpose Flour
- Kosher Salt
- Seedless Raspberry Jam: I prefer to bake these raspberry crumble bars with seedless raspberry jam like linzer cookies but seeded also works. For baking be sure to buy a thicker jam that will not spread too much, more similar to raspberry preserves. Bonne Maman and Smuckers seedless raspberry jam work nicely here. You can use leftover jam on buttermilk biscuits or in raspberry cinnamon rolls!
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Use a different berry jam or make your own. You can mix and match the types of berry jam you use in these crumble bars. I wanted to use Christmas jam in these bars but I could not find it for the life of me. You could also steal the homemade strawberry jam from my strawberry cake!
- Make them raspberry crisp bars. If you want to use old fashioned rolled oats and brown sugar, use the topping from my peach crisp recipe!
- Prep double the topping. You can double the topping as written, sprinkle on as much topping as you want and then just save the remaining crumb mixture in the freezer to make a cranberry crumble pie or strawberry crumble muffins.
- Modify the dough. You can add some pizzazz to the dough with lemon zest, extracts, or 2 ¼ teaspoons (12g) of cinnamon.
How to Serve
- Serve with scoops of vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream to balance the tartness of the raspberries. You could also serve them warm with a spoonful of crème anglaise.
- Serve them on a platter with chocolate orange shortbread cookies, apple pie bars, and gluten free lemon bars for a fun, festive spread.
How to Make Raspberry Crumble Bars
Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below!
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a 9×13 baking dish or a quarter sheet pan with parchment paper.
This recipe makes one half-sheet pan of thin bars or one quarter-sheet pan of thicker chewy bars.
Step 2: In a large bowl, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugars. Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat until combined.
Step 3: Add the flour and salt to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
Step 4: Press approximately ½ of the dough into the prepared baking pan and bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes or until a very light golden brown. Refrigerate the remaining dough.
The crust won’t look done after the first bake, because it’s not!
Step 5: Let the bottom crust cool. Then, spread the raspberry jam (I add a little extra) over the crust. Crumble the reserved dough over the top. Bake at 325°F until golden brown, about 20-30 minutes.
Use a pastry blender for the topping to achieve a crumbly, homogenous mixture.
Step 6: Let the bars cool for at least 4 hours before cutting into squares. The bars cut best chilled, but it isn’t necessary!
Add fresh raspberries before the crumble topping or sprinkle some candied ginger on top right after it comes out of the oven. Gives it an extra level of excitement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days for best flavor.
Absolutely! Just make sure they are very tightly wrapped so they don’t absorb any freezer taste.
There could be a couple of reasons your crumble isn’t crispy. You want to make sure your butter is cold when you first cut it in. Be careful not to overmix, and to bake until your topping is golden brown!
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below! I love hearing from you and your comments make my day!
Raspberry Crumble Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or ½ tsp table salt
- 1 cup raspberry jam
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a 9×13 baking dish or a quarter sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar. Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Add the flour and salt to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until a soft dough forms. Do not overmix.
- Press approximately ½ of the dough into the prepared baking pan and bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes or until a very light golden brown. Refrigerate the remaining dough.
- Let the bottom crust cool. Then, spread the raspberry jam (I add a little extra) over the crust. Crumble the reserved dough over the top. Bake at 325°F until golden brown, about 20-30 minutes.
- Let the bars cool for at least 4 hours before cutting into squares. The bars cut best chilled, but it isn’t necessary!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this recipe? Rate & comment below!Before You Go
I hope you enjoyed this professional chef tested recipe. Check out our other delicious, chef-developed bar cookie and brownies recipes, or switch from raspberries to blueberries and make these blueberry shortcakes next!
I used Strawberry Rhubarb jam and it was delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Judy! So glad you loved it! Strawberry rhubarb works beautifully here. Thanks for baking and for sharing what you used, it’s always helpful for other readers! ~gvd team
Absolutely delicious! I did bake the crust for longer because after 10 minutes the dough still looked wet, never did turn light golden brown. I let it go another 5-7 minutes until it dried out. The rest of the steps went as instructed. curious as to whether or not everyone else removed the crust while it still looked wet, but bars turned out as expected.
Hi Leah! you’re spot on to trust your oven. I think the chef mentions this in the body of the post but maybe not in the recipe card, but the crust won’t look done after the first bake, because it’s not! It’s meant to be set but still pale and soft, since it finishes baking once the jam and crumble go on. That said, oven temperatures and pan materials vary, so letting it go an extra 5–7 minutes until it looks slightly more dry is absolutely fine, as long as it stays very lightly colored. I’m glad the bars turned out exactly as expected, thank you for sharing your experience! ~gvd team
These are a great addition to Christmas! I made them with raspberry jam, and I made one with cranberry! Such a big hit! Thank you!
Easy to follow – excellent
Hi Freda! We love to hear it! Thanks for taking the time to rate and comment, always makes our day! ~gvd team
Your first instruction says to blend the butter and sugars…but only one type of sugar is mentioned in the recipe. Is there brown sugar in addition to white sugar?
Hi Jacqueline! Great eye, thank you for catching that! There’s no brown sugar in this recipe, just 1 cup granulated sugar as listed. I’ll update that wording for clarity and I really appreciate the note! Happy baking!
~gvd team
These are delicious and improve as they sit. It’s humid here in NJ, so it softened the bar. I doubled the recipe because I didn’t want a super thin bottom. I ended up tossing a bit of dough. Next time I would make 1-1/2 batches. You could easily use other flavor jams.
Hi Karen! I’m glad you loved these! Thanks for sharing your experience and happy baking! ~gvd team
Damn! Mmm mmmmm mmmm mmm mmm
Hi L-bel, happy to hear you are as into these are we are! Happy baking! ~gvd team