Blackberry Pie Bars

Blackberry Pie Bars

Several years ago, I had a job where every Friday, I would bring a treat for my co-workers and vendors.  I worked EARLY in the morning, so when I'd get home, my first thing to do was to take a nap.  This day, when I was laying down for a nap, I had looked at a recipe for the bars, and all I could dream about was these amazing bars. When I work up, I looked in the cupboard/freezer and had all of the ingredients. So I was destin to make these......

Blackberry Pie Bars

Ingredients:

Crust and Topping:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1½ cups sugar

¼ tsp salt

1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled

Fruit Filling:

4 large eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup sour cream

¾ cup flour

pinch salt

zest of ½ lemon

1 tsp almond extract

2 (16-oz) packages frozen blackberries, thawed and drained

Directions

To make the crust and topping, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan. Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times to mix. Cut the butter into ½-inch cubes, and add to the flour mixture. Process until the butter is evenly distributed but the mixture is still crumbly, 30-60 seconds. Reserve 1½ cups of the mixture to use as the topping. Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan, and bake 12-15 minutes. Cool for at least 10 minutes. To make the filling, whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then add the sugar, sour cream, flour, salt, lemon zest, and almond extract. Gently fold in the berries and spoon the mixture over the crust. Sprinkle the remaining flour mixture evenly over the filling, and bake 45 to 55 minutes.