Simple-to-make and delicious gooey butter raspberry bars.
The other day, the toddler asked for some pasta for lunch. Once the water was boiling, I put in some pasta and right then our landscaper showed up. We went into the backyard with him and (do you know where this is going?) …completely forgot about the pasta,
When we all made our way back into the kitchen it smelt HORRIBLE. The pasta was completely burned onto the bottom of the pan in a big black mess. (Thankfully that was all that happened!)
The toddler was beyond upset that I’d burned his pasta. He kept asking me why I burned his pasta…like it had been my plan all along. ? And even though I fixed it and fed him a non-burned lunch, he hasn’t let me forget about it.
EVERY TIME I go into the kitchen now he innocently and sweetly asks me, “Mom, will you not burn this food?” When I told him we were going to make a treat (these very gooey butter bars) he said, “But mom, I don’t want you to burn them again.”
One fail and now I’m completely, 100% incompetent in the kitchen according to my little guy. ?
You know you’re doing something right when your 3-year-old is “proud” of you.
Well we honestly were all thrilled these bars didn’t get burned because they are literally the best gooey butter bar ever! These butter gooey bars are ridiculously easy and have very few ingredients which I’m always a fan of.
What they do have is a whopping THREE sticks of butter. (AKA you just know they’re going to be out-of-this-world good! :)) I’m so excited to be partnering up with REAL Butter throughout the remainder of this year to bring you some delicious (and of course, butter-filled) recipes. Since these bars do have so few ingredients it’s really important to use real butter — it’s truly the base of the bar.
So that butter is really the base of these bars. With the butter, you’ll add in some sugar, extracts, lemon zest, and flour to form one thick (and sticky) dough. That dough will form the base AND the top of the bars.
The center part is raspberries + cornstarch + sweetened condensed milk. They get mashed down a bit over the stovetop and then poured on the bottom part of the dough.
You’ll drop the rest of the dough over that raspberry mixture and that’s it — into the oven they go.
And (if you can keep them from burning), you’ll be totally obsessed with these bars. Enjoy!
More Delicious Desserts:
- Greek Yogurt Berry Pops no baking required
- Key Lime Pie with a graham cracker crust!
- Mini Berry Pies in sugar cookie cups
- Cake mix (shortcut) chocolate cupcakes
- Thumbprint Cookies raspberry almond flavored
Simple-to-make and delicious buttery, gooey raspberry bars.
- 3 and 1/2 cup fresh raspberries
- 1 can (14 ounces) full-fat sweetened condensed milk
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 large lemon, zested
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium-sized pot, add the raspberries, sweetened condensed milk, and cornstarch. Turn the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a simmer. Stir VERY gently for 2-3 minutes barely smashing the raspberries (so they are still mostly in tact). Remove from the heat and set aside.
In a large bowl, add the butter and white sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and creamy scraping down the sides as needed. Once the mixture is light and fluffy, add in the vanilla extract, lemon zest, lemon extract, and salt. Beat to combine. Add in the flour and beat until JUST combined. Do not over-mix.
Press a little over half of the dough into the prepared 9 x 13 pan. Pour the raspberry mixture over the top and smooth it into one even layer. Drop small pieces of the remaining dough over the raspberry mixture. (The "dough" is very thick and sticky -- don't add more flour).
Bake for 28-32 minutes, until the top is golden, remove from the oven, and then cool the bars to room temperature.
Cut into squares and enjoy. Best enjoyed within 1-2 days.
Julia says
Oh yes! These look divine! 🙂 Haha. I guess your toddler is just worried he won’t get his food 🙂 🙂
Liv says
Is now everytbody baking with raspberries? 🙂 I just baked something with raspberries for my family and they can not stop eating , haha.
Those Gooey bars look delicious and really gooey 🙂 Can’t wait to make and eat them! 🙂
chelseamessyapron says
Thank you! 🙂
Markelle Wass says
These look INSANE!! I always get annoyed when I see a bunch of comments on recipes from people who haven’t actually made the recipe, but I couldn’t resist dropping a note to say how good these look!! I will definitely be making these soon, and will comment after I have. Thanks for the recipe!!
chelseamessyapron says
Thanks so much for the comment and I hope you LOVE these! 🙂
Markelle says
Coming back to update as promised. These were SO good! I passed the recipe on to my mom and she made them for a family dinner the other night, and they were delicious! My boys (5&7) said they were “too lemony” , but no other complaints, all thumbs up! I might just do a little juice from the lemon rather than the lemon extract next time, but will definitely keep this recipe to make again! Super yummy!!
chelseamessyapron says
Thanks so much for coming back with a review 🙂 I am so thrilled these were a hit! 🙂 And yes lemon juice would work great instead of the extract (I’m definitely a huge lemon fan!) Thanks Markelle!
Dee says
These look wonderful. I love raspberries. If I wanted to switch it up could I use blueberries or blackberries? Also, do leftovers need to be refrigerated?
Chelsea Lords says
I’ve never personally tried it but I don’t see why it would be a problem. I hope you enjoy!! 🙂
christall says
PERFECT dessert for a group of friends coming over. Also any dessert with lemon in it, wins my sons heart over. These were AMAZING! Do the left overs need to be refrigerated?
Chelsea Lords says
So, so happy to hear that! 🙂 Yay! Yes I would tightly wrap and refrigerate leftovers 🙂
Donna says
This recipe looks sublime and I would love to make it but I can’t have raspberry seeds (or any kind of seeds for that matter) so I always have to go seedless. Can I use seedless raspberry jam for this and if so how much should I use? (Can you estimate how much yield you got from the raspberries, sweetened condensed milk, and cornstarch after simmering?)
Thanks in advance!
Chelsea Lords says
Hey Donna, to be totally honest I have no idea how much yield I got from everything after simmering! I’m also thinking if you did seedless jam these bars would be overly sweet…could you pass the raspberries through a sieve to remove seeds?
Cindy says
Would frozen raspberries work for these?
Chelsea Lords says
Honestly not sure, I haven’t ever tried frozen. I’m worried it might be too soggy with frozen though