Bar None {raspberry streusel bars}

I’m so excited for the deep multiple meanings in the title of this blog post. Sometimes things just come together so perfectly. Let me try to explain.

First of all, this is a recipe for really tasty raspberry streusel bars – so you get the bar reference, obviously. That much is clear. But the Bar None reference is far better. If any of you were Nickelodeon groupies in the late 80’s/early 90’s, then you know what the other reference is: Hey Dude. I remember every word to the opening song with such clarity it’s like I’m back in my middle-school bedroom watching my 13″ TV with built-in VCR while Melody, Brad, Ted, Danny and of course, Mr. Ernst, galavant through the wild west. Does anyone remember the Ranch beauty show episode where Brad’s skill was packing a suitcase? What about when the Hollywood talent scout came to “shoot Ted in the ring”? So many memories.

It doesn’t end there. Somehow the stars aligned in my life and I managed to land a job on a guest ranch outside of Jackson Hole, Wyoming for two summers while I was in college. I was Hey Dude. It was awesome (a word way too overused, but appropriate in this case). The ranch itself was situated about 5 miles from Moran Junction, in Grand Teton National Park. I would wake up every morning to one of the most breathtaking landscapes I’ve ever seen. I rode horses for the first time ever, hiked Widow’s Washboard, saw too many bears to count, jumped in a freezing Jackson Lake, had a legitimate reason to wear a cowboy hat and boots and summited the Middle Teton on my last full day (to date) in Wyoming followed by a beer at Dornan’s in Moose. Collectively, it was one of the best experiences of my life.

There were some less glamorous parts too. I was there to clean cabins – which meant scraping hair out of drains and scrubbing toilets, sinks and pots and pans. The second summer I had been hired to be the prep chef, a dream come true, but at the last minute, the head of the cabin girls (what a moniker) backed out, so I instead became queen of the toilet cleaners. When you’re queen, you don’t have to scrub them anymore, you just tell a fleet of your peers how to do it instead.

I wonder sometimes what would have happened had I become the prep chef. Would I have decided to do something more formal with my cooking? Would I have ended up hating it because I wasn’t in control? Who knows. What I do know is that I would have been able to make this recipe for raspberry streusel bars years earlier. Until I stumbled across this recipe last week during a holiday baking extravaganza at home, I had forgotten all about them and how Elaine used to make them for the rest of the crew all the time. Besides the twice-baked potatoes on campfire nights, these raspberry bars were my favorite things from my time at Moose Head.

All of this is a really long-winded way of bringing you this recipe (isn’t that what this whole blog is about?):

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (not instant)
• 1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 raspberry jam
• 1 cup fresh raspberries (one package)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Before we start, preheat your oven to 375°F. Now get excited. Line a 13″ by 9″ baking pan with foil (I taught you this in the pecan bar recipe. I love bars, apparently).

Whisk together the flour, granulated sugar and salt together in a large bowl. Beat in 16 (of the 18) tablespoons of softened butter into the flour mixture at low speed until you reach that delicious “wet sand” consistency I love so much. Set aside 1 1/4 cups of the mixture for the topping. Press the rest into the prepared pan and bake until it begins to brown – about 15 to 18 minutes depending on your oven.

Mix together the reserved crust mixture, oats, nuts and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Add the last two tablespoons of butter and get your hands dirty. Mix em up with your fingers until things are crumbly.

In a small bowl, mash up the raspberries in the lemon juice and jam until just a few bits of raspberries remain.

When the crust is ready, pull it out of the oven and pour the raspberry mixture over the hot crust. Sprinkle that with streusel topping next.

Now bake that for 22 to 25 minutes until it looks like this (but, you know, in the pan).

This photo is post-cooling. I let the bars stay in the pan for about 3 hours before I lifted them out. Then I trimmed off all the edges so things would be even. I then ate all of the edges I trimmed off.

Cut into bars and devour.