Yum

Raspberry Fudge bars sliced with chocolate and raspberries scattered

Indiana weather likes to play cruel games with us, but it definitely seems like spring is here to stay. We’ve been enjoying hammock time, looking forward to the end of school (at last! The end of the longest year EVER!) and making plans for the summer months. I’ve also been daydreaming about all the summer fruits that I am going to indulge in, and raspberries definitely top the list. These Raspberry Fudge Bars have a raspberry chocolate chunk blondie base, a layer of tart homemade raspberry jam, and a fudge topping, and they are the perfect indulgence to get you through the last few weeks of school before summer sweeps in.

Are you here from google or pinterest and are therefore (understandably) disinterested in my life? Skip this next section. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt my feelings. Although, my google analytics will definitely tell me that you did it, so, it won’t be a secret. 😂

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I am not funny. I’m not.

Listen, mine is a dry wit. Generally, I find things like Jeopardy categories and satirical novels to be pretty funny. I do not enjoy traditional humor. I generally hate comic movies. (Except for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, that movie is gold). This is all too unfortunate, because my husband is the coach of the Comedy Sportz Team at our school, and the Student/Staff Match is next week.

If you’ve never seen Comedy Sportz, it’s basically a series of improv games played between two teams. There are skit games, games in which the point is to think of funny puns and jokes as quickly as you can, and games that encourage you to act as silly and uninhibited as possible to get a laugh.

In other words, it’s terrifying, and I am being forced to play out of love for my students and obligation to my partner. If Matt didn’t act as my secondary food photographer, personal guitar player for every event ever, show choir set builder, show choir audio technician, recording engineer, accompanist, assistant director….actually, maybe I do owe him this one match.

I have to be “funny.” Onstage. In front of my students and their parents. Send help.

Anywho.

Raspberry Fudge Bars: that soft blondie base.

The debate is ongoing…blondies or brownies? It’s contentious, and I’m not wading into it.

JK, of course I have an opinion, and it is that brownies are clearly superior.

However, a brownie seemed wrong for these raspberry fudge bars. That fudge layer is RICH, so it seemed like a good idea to throw in another flavor profile in the base. So, I turned to a blondie recipe for inspiration. This cookie bar has butter (obvs), sugar, chocolate chunks, and of course some fresh raspberries. I worried that the fruit would release too much moisture and be a weird textural element, but it totally worked perfectly. The raspberries in the dough are little joyful pops of tart freshness in every bite!

After baking the blondies, I made myself a nice homemade raspberry jam and smeared it on top.

I think homemade jam is very fun to make, and I’ve used this recipe before in my brownie cookie sandwiches, definitely check that out. I highly recommend using a sugar thermometer to make jam, but you can get away without it if you need to. Just put some on a ceramic plate when you think it’s ready. Put the plate in the freezer for five minutes, and then check it. If it has reached the right temp, it will gel on the plate.

Or, you can bring it to 220 degrees F. It’s up to you.

Why didn’t anyone tell me fudge is three ingredients?! I’m looking at you, mom.

You know that fudge that people give out at Christmas? I loooove that stuff. Every year, I go out of my way to foster relationships with parents that I suspect send in cookies to their children’s teachers and also seem like they might be fudge bakers. I have developed a keen eye for this, it is a skill. Then, I collect it from my students and colleagues and hoard it in my desk at school, trying to make it last as long as possible. Mrs. Phelps, you’ve always come through with this stuff, and your dedication is deeply appreciated, FYI. I always though it was this really difficult thing to make that involved sugar thermometers, magic, maybe making your own chocolate, I don’t know.

It’s all a lie. Fudge is basically canned sweetened condensed milk and chocolate.

That’s it. Really. Fudge every day from now on. It was about time to give up the dream of the summer beach bod anyway.

I whipped up some of this fudge using the very technical method of chucking everything in the microwave and then stirring, and then poured it onto the top of my cookie bars. Oh, yes.