Raspberry Jam Shortbread Bars

These buttery shortbread cookie bars are layered with raspberry jam and white chocolate chips. They’re easy to make and a great dessert for all year round.

Why You’ll Love These Raspberry Shortbread Bars

If I had to pick a favorite underrated, easy to make dessert, I think these white chocolate raspberry shortbread bars would be the winner. They’re like if you took a crumb bar, shortbread, and a raspberry thumbprint cookie and meshed them all together. 

• They are easy to make, using pantry staple ingredients, some raspberry jam, and white chocolate chips. 
• The shortbread is buttery and melts in your mouth, which is a perfect complement to the tart raspberry jam and sweet white chocolate. 
• Perfect for any time of year or occasion – afternoon snacks, cookie exchanges, Valentine’s Day, etc. These would also be so cute cut into little rectangles or cubes for a tea party!

Ingredients and Notes

Before getting into the ingredients, I do want to caveat that this shortbread dough is not a classic shortbread dough. There is an egg in there, which gives the shortbread a softer, more tender texture. I wanted these bars to be buttery-soft and for the raspberry, white chocolate, and cookie to blend together seamlessly. 

• All-purpose flour: for the best results, I recommend measuring your flour with a digital food scale. This will help avoid over-measuring flour, which is a common mistake when baking.
• Unsalted butter: softened to room temperature
• Granulated sugar: for sweetness 
• One large egg, at room temperature: if your egg is cold, soak it in a bowl of very warm water for 5-10 minutes to quickly bring it to room temperature
• Vanilla extract, salt, and baking powder
• White chocolate chips: you can substitute chopped white chocolate if preferred
• Raspberry jam: you can use homemade or store-bought, pick your favorite. This recipe also works well with other fruit jams such as strawberry or mixed berry. 

You will also need a 8×8 inch square baking pan (aluminum or steel preferred). I love this one from USA pan.

How to Make Raspberry Jam Cookie Bars

Here is a step by step on how to make these raspberry shortbread bars:

1. Make the cookie dough by beating butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Lastly, fold in dry ingredients until combined and a dough comes together. 
2. Press ⅔ of the cookie dough into the base of your greased baking pan. I recommend lining the pan with parchment paper as well so that you can lift the bars right out of the pan.
3. Spread an even layer of raspberry jam on top of the dough and sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. 
4. Crumble the remaining cookie dough over the jam. No need to be perfect or press the dough into the jam! The dough will spread out as it bakes. 
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown. 

Tips & Tricks

• Let the raspberry crumb bars cool down completely before cutting them into squares. They will be so much easier to cut once they are cool. They also taste best when cooled down instead of still hot out of the oven!
• Dust with some powdered sugar to make them aesthetically pleasing and add a little bit of extra sweetness. 
• Use a metal baking pan instead of glass to ensure an even bake. Glass pans will heat the bottom and edges a lot faster than the middle, meaning they could end up over-baked while the center is still raw.

Pin & Save for Later

Not ready to bake yet but want to come back to this recipe? No problem! Simply hover over any image in this post (or tap on mobile) to save this recipe to your favorite baking Pinterest board.

And if you love these bars then I would also recommend some raspberry cheesecake thumbprint cookies. They’re similar in flavor and just as happy!