Raspberry Pistachio Butter Bars

A rich, buttery crust surrounding raspberry jam and crumbled pistachios? Sign me up! Let's make raspberry pistachio butter bars!

I first made these raspberry pistachio butter bars over the Christmas holidays because I thought the red/green combination was too perfect to pass up. Turns out, the taste is too perfect to pass up too.

Before long, I'd made this recipe about four times. With a few little changes each time, I've finally nailed the recipe and I'm so excited to share it with you!

This has become one of my go-to recipes for baby and bridal showers, birthdays, holidays...you name it! It's the kind of treat that suits any occasion and always gets gobbled up.

I used to make these using a bit of sour cream in the crust and less butter. They taste great! But they weren't super sweet (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). They taste kind of like a breakfast bar - not as sweet as a dessert.

But I played around with the recipe and I think using strictly butter in the crust resulted in a better result that still isn't too sweet.

This is the second half of the dough with the pistachios too in that I lovingly refer to as pistachidough.

These raspberry pistachio butter bars can be eaten anytime of day (if you ask me). And they're easy to eat on the go if you'd like! And hey, with the red raspberry jam they even make for a good Valentine's Day dessert. Not that you need an occasion for a delicious treat!

Okay. Now onto the deets. 

Raspberry Pistachio Butter Bars

📖 Recipe

Raspberry Pistachio Butter Bars

5 from 4 votes

These raspberry pistachio butter bars are perfectly rich without being too sweet. The combination of raspberry and pistachios with a buttery crust is a nice surprise and I think as soon as you try these they'll be a new favorite!

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course: Dessert

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

For the Crust

• 2 cups Salted butter Room temp.
• 4 cups Flour
• 1.5 cups Powdered sugar
• 1 cup Granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoon Vanilla extract

For the filling

• ¾ cup Raspberry jam Seeded or seedless - both work
• ¾ cup Crushed, raw pistachios No shell

Method

 

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
   
2. Spray a 9 x 13 oven-safe baking pan with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.
   
3. Fit your stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or use your hand beater) and add room temp. butter and sugars.
   
4. Beat butter and sugars for 2 minutes or until creamy and fluffy.
   
5. Add the vanilla extract and beat again.
   
6. Slowly add the four cups of flour, stopping to scrape the sides if you need to, until a soft dough forms and all ingredients are incorporated.
   
7. Take half of your dough and add it to the bottom of the pan. Use your hands to flatten the dough and fill the shape of the pan.
   
   
8. When your oven is ready, cook the first half of the dough for 20 minutes. The edges should be light brown.
   
   
9. While the first half of dough cooks, take your crushed pistachios (I used a meat tenderizer to break mine up) and mix them into the other half of the dough. Place in fridge while the first half cooks.
   
   
10. When the first half of dough is done baking, remove from the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes.
    
11. Spread ¾ cup of raspberry jam onto your cooked crust.
    
    
12. Crumble the pistachio dough and add it on top of the raspberry jam. Try to fill in any big gaps but don't worry about there being some spaces.
    
    
13. Return to oven and cook for another 20-30 minutes OR more - until the top looks slightly golden and set. I have a hot oven so mine is usually done after about 22 minutes but in other ovens this recipe can take longer.
    
14. Remove from the oven and let the finished product cool on the counter for about one hour before cutting it into squares.
    
    
15. Store in an airtight container for up to five days.
    

Notes

• If you don't have salted butter, be sure to add at least ⅛th of a teaspoon of salt to your dough with your unsalted butter.
• You can use salted or unsalted pistachios - I've had great results with both! If using unsalted, you may want to add a touch more salt to the dough.
• I've made these with seedless and regular raspberry jam. Both tasted great and you don't really notice the seeds either way because the crunchy pistachios stand out more.

Tried this recipe?

Let us know how it was!

These would also be great with other kinds of jam (strawberry and apricot come to mind!). But it'll be hard to stray from this version once you try it.

I hope you give this easy dessert a try. And I hope you'll let me know what you think when you do! 

xo - C