Raspberry Lemon Bars

Even if I haven't had my Bible study to bake for on a weekly basis, I still love to do it and when opportunities arise when cookies are asked to be baked, I can't pass that up! It gets my little baking heart all aflutter. 

I recently made a few desserts for the church Sean and I had been attending, and I intended to post up them before 4th of July since they had red from raspberries and then blue from blueberries. I thought they would be brought to any 4th of July bbq you might attend because they were appropriately themed.

For these lemon raspberry bars, first gather together your ingredients.

1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs, 6 tablespoons butter, melted, 1/4 cup sugar, zest of one lemon, 2 large egg yolks, 1 can (14 oz.) condensed milk, 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, 6 oz. fresh raspberries.

Preheat your oven to 350F degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crusts, zest of one lemon and sugar. 

Stir all these ingredients together then mix in the melted butter.

 When the mixture is the consistency of wet sand, press the mixture down into a square 9X9 inch pan.

Bake the crust for 10 minutes in the oven then remove the pan from the oven and let the crust cool to room temperature.

In another mixing bowl, add the condensed milk, egg yolks and lemon juice and mix. 

Add in the lemon zest. Mix all the ingredients together then pour it over the cooled graham cracker crust. 

Sprinkle the raspberries on top of the condensed milk mixture and press down on the raspberries slightly, if you want. 

Bake the lemon raspberry bars for 15 minutes in the oven, then remove and cool. Once the bars are completely cool, then cut them into squares, serve and enjoy!

recipe via