Raspberry Almond Pie Bars with a zing of lemon will be your new favorite holiday treat! Pie bars are one of my favorite things because I love pies, but I always secretly dread rolling out the pie dough. Well with pie bars you just dump and press flat! So easy!
I love lining my pans with parchment paper for 2 reasons. 1: Easy clean up! 2: When the bars are cooled, I just lift up on the parchment to pull out the bars and then I can easily cut them into squares!
And when it comes to flattening your pie crust, you can use your fingers but you’ll leave little finger marks all over. So if those marks bug you, just use the bottom of a glass or a measuring cup!
As for the filling of these incredible Raspberry Almond Pie Bars, I added a little zing using the lemon zest and juice. Feel free to play around with that, maybe even use an orange instead if you want! I really just loved the brightness from the lemon, the sweetness from the raspberries and the warmth from the almond. It’s a perfect fall treat that really goes along with all the Thanksgiving flavors.
I toss the berries in flour and sugar first to make sure they don’t all sink through the filling. And I break them up with a spoon so that every bite will have a little bit of raspberry in it 🙂
Serve them with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!
Raspberry Almond Pie Bars
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1/2 C. Crisco Shortening cold
- 1/2 C. sugar
- 1/4 C. brown sugar
- 1 1/2 C. all purpose flour
Filling:
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 C. all purpose flour
- 1/2 C. sugar
- 1/4 C. sour cream or yogurt
- zest of 1 lemon
- 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp. almond extract
- 1 C. fresh raspberries + 1 Tbsp. flour + 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 1/2 C. sliced almonds to top
Instructions
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line an 8X8 inch pan (or something similar to that) with parchment paper, or simply grease it.
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2. In a food processor (I used my Blendtec) or using a pastry cutter, combine cold shortening, sugar, brown sugar and flour together until the mix the crumbly.
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3. Reseve 1 cup of crust for the topping and dump the rest into your prepared pan. Spread out and press flat. I used the bottom of a glass to do the flattening for me, a measuring cup works great too!
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4. To make filling, combine your egg, flour, sugar, sour cream, lemon zest, lemon juice and almond extract until smooth. Pour over flattened crust.
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5. In a separate bowl, coat raspberries in flour and sugar and then use a spoon to gently split the berries in halves. You just don't want full berries, to crus them to your liking.
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6. Spoon the raspberries over the filling.
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7. Crumble your reserved cup of crust evenly over the filling/raspberries and follow up with sliced almonds.
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8. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until an inserted knife or toothpick comes out clean! Let cool and serve with whipped cream!
If you loved these, check out my Pumpkin Dump Cake, it’s basically like an upside down pumpkin pie! Or want another fun pie recipe? Eggnog pie is insanely easy and incredibly eggnoggy!
Guess what time of year it is? Time for the Crisco Pie and Baking Hotline! How fun is this? You can call and ask all your questions about pies and other baked goods and someone will actually pick up the phone and answer! So cool! I know when I’m in the kitchen and something isn’t going right, I hop on my computer to find out what to do. But I always get frustrated because my questions are so specific. Well, in November and December I can just call and ask an expert!
Here’s the hours for the hotline:
November 12 – 21: Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET
December 10 – 21: 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET
December 24: 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET
A little behind the scenes shot for those of you who like to see how it all happens 🙂
I was compensated for this post by the J.M. Smucker Company, all opinions are my own.
These look TDF! Anything raspberry is already a favorite. (I’m assuming this will work the same with frozen raspberries, because there certainly won’t be any fresh available for at least 7-8 months.)
I actually was shocked that I found beautiful fresh raspberries at every store last week! So do check for the fresh!!
OK, so somehow, I just now finally noticed your love of Cary Grant movies in your bio. Totally with you on that. I dig The Philadelphia Story, personally. But it’s almost not fair, because that has Jimmy Stewart and Katherine Hepburn, too.
But I digress. These bars look like they are just bursting with flavor! I’d love a few of these for my next movie binge 🙂
These look amazing! one questions though, What can I use as a substitute for Crsico shortening? will any shortening work?
I love a good raspberry dessert this time of year! This look great.
Absolutely gorgeous! You make it look so easy to work with the crust!
This looks amazing! I love pie bars, especially with almond flavor! Pinned!
I love using raspberries in dessert, they are so refreshing! And those bars look incredible!
The crust looks super easy to make also! Thanks for sharing!
~Liz@HoosierHomemade
These look so amazing, Lizzy! I am obsessed with raspberries right now – so festive.
These look fantastic! Raspberries have been on sale like crazy here and I can never eat them fast enough. Must make bars 🙂
I’m concerned about making a crumble topping with Crisco in stead of butter! Has anyone made this recipe using butter? It seems like flavor would be sacrificed.
It should be alright with butter!
These were so damn good!!! 😀 taste the same as good as they look! 😀 Yummy, definitely making them again. Thank You
And second time I made these, I skipped the lemon juice and used 2tbsp of almond meal instead. Delicious. 😉
these look sooo good and fresh 😮
xoxo <3
I love that with these, you sort of get 2 pastries in 1 with the treat base and fruity filling. Much obliged for sharing!
They look so beautiful and attractive. I definitely will try it.
I made this recipe for the Christmas 2022. I wanted to use up ingredients I already had. My almond extract had evaporated so I used vanilla. I used butter instead of crisco. I used frozen raspberries instead of fresh. I didn’t have a lemon. I omitted the zest. In a pinch concentrated liquid lemonade water enhancer can be used to replace lemon juice. (It sounds crazy but I have done this with savory dishes as well). The point is this is a flexible delicious recipe.
But I prefer strawberry
Your cooking instructions are fantastic. I’m going to learn how to make your meals.
I just made these Raspberry Almond Pie Bars and WOW, they turned out amazing! The lemon zest adds such a fresh kick, and the almond flavor gives it that cozy fall vibe. I especially loved how easy it was to press the crust—no rolling pin stress at all! Definitely a keeper for my holiday baking list.
If you’re into trying fun stuff while waiting for your batch to bake, check this out: https://www.getshadowfight2.com – it’s a cool little break before the oven timer goes off!
Thanks for this delicious recipe!