Luscious GF Raspberry Bars

     For me summer means berry picking.  In my garden I have a small strawberry patch.  My daughter has more raspberry bushes than I do, and she had a bumper crop last year. Along with all the blackberries that line most of our trails and blueberry fields out in the county, we can make all kinds of delicious desserts that showcase our Northwest berries.

I saw this recipe for raspberry bars in my Syre School Cookbook and thought I'd see if I could use some real berries instead of the jam it called for.  I didn't use as much sugar as the jam probably had, but these were so full of flavor!  If you want to make it from scratch like I did, just let it cool down a bit and check it's consistency and level of sweetness.  I didn't have to add any more sugar than I listed here. 



1.  Make crust - In a medium-sized mixing bowl put:
(1)  2 1/4 cups of gluten free flours - I used 1  1/2 cups of white rice flour, 1/2 cup of tapioca flour, 1/2 cup of fava and garbanzo flour.
(2)  Stir in 1/2 cup of sugar (recipe called for 1 cup, but I always cut it down) and 1 cup of oatmeal.
(3)   Cut in 1/2 cup of  butter (recipe calls for 1 cup, but like the sugar I usually cut that down, too)
(4)  Stir in 1 egg.
(5)  Put 1 1 /2 cups of the flour mixture in a small bowl for the topping.

2.  Prepare filling:  The recipe calls for 10 oz. of raspberry preserves, but because I had some raspberries  in the freezer, I thought I'd try to use them for the bars.  If you want to use frozen raspberries here's how I did it:
(1)  Put 2 1/2 cups of frozen raspberries with their juice into a saucepan.
(2)  Stir in 2 packs of unflavored gelatin and 1/4 cup of sugar.
(3)  If the mixture doesn't thicken up which mine didn't, add 2 tsp. of tapioca starch mixed with a tablespoon of water.  I let this sit for a few hours and when I spread it, it had the consistency of jam!

3. Do the bars:
(1)  Press the rest of the flour mixture into the bottom of a greased 8 x 8 pan.
(2)  Spread the raspberry filling or 10 oz. of raspberry preserves evenly over the top of the crust. (I wonder since I had about 2 cups of raspberry filling if 10 oz. of jam will be enough.)
(3)  Crumble the reserved 1 1/2 cups of the flour mixture over the top of the raspberry filling.

4.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.  Cool and cut.  It says it makes 2 dozen.

Desserts with Fruit:
Sensational Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake   (From the back of Costco's organic sugar)

Terrific Gluten Free Strawberry & Peach Trifle  (Modified from an Internet search)
My Favorite Gluten Free Strawberry Cheesecake (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
Just Like Grandma's (But Only Gluten Free) Berry Cobbler (My husband's grandma's recipe)
Gluten Free Lemony Rhubarb Bars (From my Syre School Cookbook)
Old Fashioned Strawberry Buckle (Made Gluten Free)   (A recipe I picked up from a berry farm)
From New Zealand - Triple Berry Pavlova  (A friend's recipe - Heritage School Cookbook)
A Northeast Classic - Blueberry Grunt  (From a student)