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There are moments in a girl’s life that she knows she will remember forever. Moments that make a lasting impact. I had one of those moments a few days ago. I was standing in my parent’s kitchen one evening and I glanced down at the counter. There was a gorcery ad laying there and I picked it up. Hold on to your hats, because this is where things get exciting. The ad listed 6 ounce containers of fresh blackberries for just one dollar. One dollar! I normally spend three or four times that for blackberries!
Needless to say, I ran right home and spent hours pouring over blackberry recipes. I finally settled on Blackberry Pie Bars from Joy the Baker and then I went to the store, found that they were all out of the $1.00 blackberries, wept, and then went to another store and purchased $2.00 blackberries.
And you know what? I don’t even care that I paid twice as much. Those $2.00 blackberries made something delicious.
Enough with the chit chat. Let’s make blackberry pie bars.
To start, zest one lemon into a bowl with 3/4 cups of sugar. Using the back of a spoon rub the zest into the sugar for a few minutes. Oh, man. I don’t even want to tell you how delicious this is. Just do it. And then lick it. And then cry tears of joy.
To the bowl of your mixer, add 1 1/2 cups of flour, 3/4 cups of cold butter (cut into cubes), a dash of salt, and the sugar/lemon zest mixture. Beat with the paddle attachment for a couple of minutes until you get a nice chunky dough. Go ahead. Eat a few chunks, I won’t tell.
In a greased 9 x 13 pan, press half of the dough along the bottom. Pop the dough into a preheated 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.
Let the dough cool for 10 minutes while you make the blackberry filling.
Whisk 2 eggs in a large bowl. Stir in 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of sour cream, and 1/2 cup of flour. Mix well and then fold in 3 cups of blackberries. (Thaw and drain your blackberries first if you are using frozen!)
Pour your blackberry mixture over the dough and spread it out evenly.
Grab your reserved dough and sprinkle the rest of it over the top of the berry mixture.
Yum.
Pop it into the oven for about 50-60 minutes or until the top is just getting golden brown.
At this point, I contemplated getting out my video camera so you could see the berry mixture bubbling up between the cracks of the dough. The sound of the bubbling berries was beautiful. Then I realized that maybe I was taking my love of bubbling baked goods too far and I settled for a regular old picture.
Look at those delicious berries.
Have I said “yum” yet?
Yum.
Blackberry Pie Bars
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup cold butter cut into cubes
- Zest of one lemon
- Pinch of salt
For the filling:
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cups blackberries if using frozen, thaw and drain first
Instructions
For the dough:
- Rub zest of lemon into sugar using the back of the spoon creating a lemon scented sugar.
- In the bowl of your mixer, dump in flour, sugar/lemon zest mixture, butter and salt. Beat with the paddle attachment for a couple of minutes until the dough comes together in small chunks.
- Press half of the dough into the bottom of a greased 9 x 9 pan. Set aside the remaining dough.
- Bake the dough for 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Let cool for 10 minutes.
For the filling:
- Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add sugar, sour cream and flour to the eggs. Mix well and then fold blackberries.
- Pour blackberries over baked crust and spread evenly.
- Sprinkle the reserved dough on top of the blackberry mixture and bake for 50-60 minutes.
- Let cool one hour before serving.
Nutrition Information:
Adapted from Joy the Baker
Maggie Martin says
My rating is times 2! so, 10 stars!
BLACKBERRIES!!, nothing else needs to be said
Maggie
Trish says
These look delicious! Can they be frozen after baking?
Karly says
I don’t have a lot of experience with freezing baked goods, but I think these would freeze really well. 🙂
Karen Lea says
Made these last night for a casual family dinner/dessert. I used black raspberries and blueberries. Have to say it was the best dessert I have ever made. Great recipe! Even the guys were asking for the recipe.
Karly says
@Karen Lea,
So glad to hear that!
Vicki says
I haven’t made these yet, but we have wild blackberries growing on our property – at the very least the last 15 years we’ve lived here. Some years are better than others. This year’s bushes are yielding lots of wonderful berries. I’m going to make t his tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll post results. This looks so good!
theultimatefoodaddict says
these look so good! i want to make one so bad! thanks for sharing!
JudyC says
I agree with Samantha! I used 8×8 or 9×9 pan. Totally would not work in 9×13 (but, now I do have that greased pyrex to wash!)!!
Karly says
@JudyC,
Ooh, sorry about that! I’m not sure what I was thinking when I wrote this recipe out. 🙁 I’ve updated it now for a 9×9 pan.
carrian says
Those look and sound so good. I adore all things blackberry!! I’m linking you to my key-lime blackberry bars post. Thank you so much!
Danielle says
OMG! That is honestly how I feel right about now…like some stated above my crust was pretty dry and I was worried about how things would turn out but I’ve had 3 bar already so obviously things are great!
My only issue was that I didn’t think about the above photos and expected the top to brown…It sat for a long time in the oven before I looked at the pictures and realized my dreams were futile…During that time my crust got really brown and somewhat crunchy and it is a perfect treat.