Blueberry Crumb Bars

Happy 4th of July everyone! I've been a busy bee the past week, we've been off on vacation touring Virginia - it so much fun! It was so great and relaxing to get away however we both got sick with a summer cold, yuck.  But this post is not about summer colds, so onto the good stuff!

The weekend prior to leaving on vaca my little brother graduated high school - way to go Morgan! I offered to bring a dessert to the festivities and when I saw this recipe on smittenkitchen.com I knew it was the one. It looked fresh and summery and perfect.

First, I adore blueberries and always have a large bag of frozen blueberries in the freezer. Regularly, we enjoy blueberries in our oatmeal for breakfast or over yogurt. There is always blueberries available in my life. Plus I had all of the ingredients on hand - recipe sold!  The recipe is such a cinch it was a winner on a crazy day as I was preparing for our trip.

Check out how it's done.

The players:

blueberries, sugar, flour, corn starch, unsalted butter, salt, baking powder, lemon and an egg

 Start off by preparing the crumb portion of this treat.

Cut the butter into the ingredients until it looks like small peas. Starting with cold butter is key. I love this since I do not need to think ahead and take out the butter to soften.

Gently press half of mixture into 9x13 baking pan.  In the meantime, combine the blueberry mixture.

Distribute blueberry mixture evenly over the pan.

Pour the remaining portion of the crumbs on top. Pop into oven.

Bake until slightly brown on top. Looks awesome. I am sad to report I did not snap a photo of the bars cut up but I can attest they look even better on display.

I cut this into single-bite servings for the party. It was a tremendous hit! Joel couldn't keep his paws out of it. The frozen blueberries worked really well and I'm sure fresh blueberries would be delightful when they are in season. Try it yourself and let me know what you think!

Blueberry Crumb Bars

Adapted from smittenkitchen.com which adapted recipe from allrecipes.com

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray 9x13 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray (or you could use grease). 

2. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Use a pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly be sure not to over work the butter-flour mixture. Gently pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 - 60 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. My oven took the full 60 minutes to bake through. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

5. Devour! 

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