Raspberry Crumble Squares

Today was definitely a day for baking rather than venturing outside - it's been snowing pretty much all day.  Not a huge amount, but enough to cover up the tire tracks from my hubby's car after he went to work early this morning.  With the wood burning stove blazing and the oven on a couple of different times during the day, the house has been toasty warm.  Hopefully my hubby will be home soon so he can enjoy these tasty treats with me.

We managed to get a large amount of superb, fresh raspberries back in the summer from a local winery, and most of them got divided into Ziploc bags holding 2 cups each, and the rest I made into raspberry jam, which we've been enjoying ever since.  These squares will bring back the memory of summer, even when it's white with snow outside :o)

Raspberry Crumble Squares
makes 9 large or 16 small squares

base and topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter, melted

filling
2 cups fresh or frozen (unthawed) raspberries (or any other berries)
1/2 cup raspberry jam (or other berry jam)
2 tsp all-purpose flour

• preheat the oven to 350 F.
• in a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt.
• add the melted butter and mix until you have a crumbly mixture.
• remove 1 cup and set aside for the topping.
• press the remaining crumble evenly into an 8" x 8" pan, sprayed with non-stick spray.
• in a medium bowl stir together the filling ingredients until all the flour is incorporated.
• spread evenly over the base; sprinkle the reserved crumble over the top.
• bake for 30-35 minutes, until bubbling around the edges.
• cool, in the pan, on a wire rack; cut into 16 squares.  Eat as a snack or a dessert, warm served with vanilla ice cream.  Yum!

 Raspberry Crumble Squares ingredients.

mix the flour, oats, sugar, baking soda and salt until you have a 'crumble' consistency.

don't forget to spray the pan with non-stick spray before you press in the base.  You don't want all this deliciousness to stick to the pan so that you leave half of it behind!!!

it doesn't matter if the raspberries are still frozen - as you mix them with the jam and flour they'll start to thaw and break down.

make sure you spread it right to the edges - you want every bite to be a mouthful of raspberry sweetness.

sprinkle the remaining crumble on the top - no need to press it down.

no matter how tempting it is, try to leave the pan alone to cool completely, otherwise instead of firm(ish) squares, you'll just end up with raspberry crumble in a bowl......mmmm, actually there's nothing wrong with that either :o)

I opted for 9 larger squares today.

you might notice that there are only eight squares on the plate - the ninth one was that 'all to fragile' first square that you try to get out of the pan without breaking, but never quite manage it, so then it becomes the 'taste test' sample - well, that's my excuse for hubby and I to devour it as we stood over the pan anyway!!! :o)

we didn't have any vanilla ice (no ice cream at all actually), but frozen cool whip worked quite nicely too.