#raspberry bars

Y’all these SLAP 10/10

Alright here’s what you need!!

For the filling

12 oz bag of frozen raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

Juice of 1/2 of a lemon

1 TBS flour (can be gluten free!)

1/2 TBS cornstarch

For the Crust

1 1/2 cup flour (can be gluten free if 1 to 1)

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 Tsp baking powder

3/4 cup melted butter (can be vegan!)

Throw in like a 1/4 tsp of salt

Directions

Put the frozen raspberries in a lil strainer and run warm water over them for 1 minute. Leave to continue straining and thawing. If there is too much liquid, mash them up a little to help drain

While the raspberries are thawing, preheat to 350 F and mix the crust

On a greased 11x7 pan, put in most of the crust and squish it down. You’ll have a lot left over for the crumble!

Bake the crust for 12 minutes

While baking, mix together the ingredients for the filling

Once the crust is out, evenly spread the filling and sprinkle on as much crumble as you want

Bake for 20-25 minutes

Optional: mix together a little bit of powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla to make an icing and drizzle on top of baked bars

Enjoy!

Today I learned that my friend is coming home from the hospital. It doesn’t feel too early to start planning my trip to England, even though it may be a couple years out.

A memory I have connected to food and my friend: when I was 18 and living in a hall of residence in England, my family sent me a care package from America, to include a pack of Oreos. As hard as it is to believe, none of my friends knew what an Oreo was. (This was 1983.) But they knew it was something I was very excited about. I cannot even remember now, but I hope I at least shared them. 

Years later, when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer and living in Romania and missing everything about home, I received another package of Oreos, this time from Ruth. She’d remembered. But it wasn’t so easy this time round getting my package. I had to find my way to the post office in a foreign city with no English signage and no iPhones. It was a harrowing experience. I wrote a group email about the challenge of finally getting my package. And Ruth wrote back telling me that only I could make going to the post office sound like a James Bond movie. I loved her for that.

Today, I give you Raspberry Coconut Bars. The recipe says they travel well. I’d like to ship a box to England, but I don’t know if they travel that well. Maybe I’ll have to set a new goal: hand-deliver to Ruth and Martin when this mess is over and done with.