Am I the only one that doesn’t really care for fruit pie (apple excluded, obvs)? So much mushy filling, so little crust. When I was a kid I would usually eat the crust and leave the berries. And ask for extra ice cream. I was a lemon meringue kind of kid.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: Billy you just gave me blackberry fruit pie bars. Get your shit together.
Here’s what I’m thinking: Thin single layer of blackberries and a nice mega layer of pie crust. I’ve got it together, I’ve got it going on.
When I first saw these on Smitten Kitchen I was like what? yes. let’s do this. Then I went and priced out blueberries. They aren’t affordable in my area yet. Aren’t affordable as in the blueberries alone would have been $15 for this recipe. Deb says you can use frozen, but I wanted to take advantage of the fresh berry season. So I went for blackberries.
Hot damn am I happy about that.
When I tried the first bar after they had barely cooled, I wasn’t sold. It was okay. eh.
Then I let them refrigerate overnight and ate three for breakfast the next morning. Then a couple more for lunch. Before I knew it there were like 5 left. I don’t want to talk about it.
I said I don’t want to talk about it.
But we can talk about how fantastic these are. They’re perfect for BBQs, picnics, and re-creations of the opening credits of sound of music, like this:
Look how happy Julie is about these pie bars.
You can try any berry you want in there, maybe even some fresh cherries? But I warn you: do not try it with strawberries. Cooked strawberries turn gray and gross. You’ve been warned.
Now, let’s make some pie bars and impress people and/or do some meadow running.
Blackberry Pie Bars
Adapted, barely, from Smitten Kitchen
RECIPE UPDATE: better images, more streamlined recipe, a couple more ideas for filling
