Below you will find tips and tricks to help achieve the best results possible!

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Ingredients

Butter – make sure the butter is cold before adding it to the dry ingredients. Cold butter helps to make the dough flaky. Also, chill the topping dough until ready to use so that the butter does not get too warm. You might need to break up the dough with a fork before sprinkling it on top of the blackberry filling.

Blackberries – if picking your own berries it is nice to have a combination of sweet and tart, as well as a mix of soft and firmer berries. These bars also have seeds from the fruit, but I like the texture the seeds add to the dessert.

Extract – vanilla extract is a staple for baking, but you could also use almond extract as it pairs well with the fruit.

Supplies Needed

Food processor or pastry blender

9 x 13-inch pan lined with parchment paper

Other needed supplies include a mixing bowl, measuring spoons, and measuring cups or kitchen scale.

Tips and Tricks

A food processor makes it very easy to combine all the dough ingredients. However, you can also cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or even a fork and knife. You are looking for small pea size crumbs of butter in the dough, but it is okay if there is some variation in crumb size.

For clean-cut bars, refrigerate bars and cut them while cold. That will result in bars with sharp edges.

Variations

If you prefer your berries sweeter, you can increase the amount of sugar in the filling to 2/3 cup.

Cinnamon can be substituted for allspice, or you can omit spices altogether.

If fresh berries are not available, frozen berries can be used but they need to be thawed and drained so the bars do not become soggy.

If you choose to increase or decrease the number of berries for the filling, make sure to use one teaspoon of cornstarch for every cup of berries.

You can substitute other fruit such as apples, peaches, blueberries, etc. A combination of fruit could also be used. Peaches and blackberries would be nice. I also plan to make an apple version of these bars for the fall.

This recipe can also be halved and baked in a 8 x 8 inch pan. If halving the recipe use one whole egg in the crust and reduce the baking time to 35-40 minutes.