Raspberry Almond Bars

This is my favorite bar recipe. It tastes delicious and is well worth the effort! This would be a treat on anybody's Christmas tray or maybe even a potluck. I used Oil crust for 1 pie Oil crust for 1 pie for the pie dough and it worked out great! Hope you enjoy it!

• Ready In: 55 mins
• Serves: 24

Ingredients

• 1  pie dough
• 1⁄4 cup  raspberry jam
• 1⁄2 cup butter or 1⁄2 cup margarine, softened
• 2⁄3 cup sugar
• 2  eggs
• 2⁄3 cup flour
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
•  red food coloring
•  green food coloring

• Frosting

• 2  tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 1⁄2-2  cups icing sugar
• 2  tablespoons  cream or 2  tablespoons milk
• 1  teaspoon  almond extract

Directions

1. Prepare pie dough for one crust unbaked shell. Line an 8-inch square ungreased cake pan with pastry.
2. Spread with raspberry jam.
3. Cream butter and sugar together thoroughly. Add eggs, beating until light and fluffy. Add flour and salt; blend well.
4. Divide batter in half. Colour half pink and half green.
5. First spread green layer, doing your best not to spread the jam onto the green batter. Once green is covering all of the jam, repeat with pink layer.
6. Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely then frost.
7. Frosting:
8. Beat frosting ingredients together until smooth and creamy, adding enough icing sugar to make a spreading consistency. Spread over cooled bars.
9. Let set and then cut into bars.