This week’s Project Pastry Queen challenge is being brought to you by Josie of Pink Parsley: Blackberry Pie Bars. A moist, tangy cobbler/pie/bar dessert/snack/breakfast hybrid that requires no utensils – the perfect dessert to take to a picnic or barbecue. Or the perfect breakfast to eat on the living room floor. I love blackberries. They grew wild along our fence line so we used to pick them all summer long for cobbler. MMMmm. Cobbler.

I had quite a few self-inflicted problems with the recipe this week. You know those times when you plow full-steam-ahead into a recipe that you didn’t completely read? Or… you know, even read at all? You just assume that you know what’s going to happen? And then you find yourself elbow deep in mistakes before you even get to step 3? Yeah…

Hi, my name is Shawnda. And I almost never read a recipe before I get started. It’s a sickness. I’ve lost count at the number of times that I’ve run into an over-night step in a dish when dinner is an hour away. Or like this week, I assumed the recipe was going one direction when really it was headed in another. In a bigger pan. One that could actually hold all the contents of the recipe.

Despite all the missteps I made along the way, they were really tasty. Serving them warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream was the perfect send off!

This is what we did differently… not all of them were intentional.

– I cut the recipe in half because who needs that many blackberry pie bars hanging around, singing their sweet siren song from the kitchen counter all day long? We (I) don’t.
– I cut the sugar by half again.
– I used 1 lb fresh blackberries because they were on sale and cheaper than frozen.
– I put the juice of a lemon in the bottom of my measuring cup before adding the sour cream – because blackberry + lemon = love.
– I added water to the “pie crust” because I assumed we were making a pie crust. We weren’t. So don’t add water.
– I bonked on the math when I was trying to figure if my 9-inch tart pan would hold the contents of an 8×8 square pan. (It won’t.)
– When I poured the filling into the tart pan, I realized that I had really bonked on the math. Even worse than I had first thought.
– I didn’t grease the sides of the tart pan well enough and, it stuck. Like glue. And not just any glue. Completely possessed, demon-spawn glue.

You can see the other Project Pastry Queen members’ take on Blackberry Pie bars:
Pink Parsley
Fake Ginger
20 Something Cupcakes
Smells Like Home

Thanks to Josie for picking such a delicious recipe! Next week, we’re going sticky & gooey with Sticky Finger Bars! Well, I assume they’re sticky & gooey. I haven’t read the recipe. Yet.