Berry Coconut Crumble Bars

I need to let you in on a secret.  Most of my cooking doesn’t follow a recipe.  Most of the time, the best things I cook are from recipes that I modified so heavily that I can’t even remember what I did.  I mean to the point that can’t even recognize the initial recipe.  Aside from very few things, like baking items, most of the time I don’t even use measuring spoons.  I wing it, from start to finish.

And then sometimes I have a recipe that has really good bones, and all I have to do is modify it ever so slightly for it to be insanely different, and yet still very much the same.  And that’s how this one goes.

For the last 4 years in the height of berry picking season, this crumble has been a go-to recipe for us.  It’s very forgiving ingredient wise.  Bonus points since we have the ingredients on hand at all times.

This time though, I decided to wing it a bit, as I so often do.  I had some strawberries that needed used up, but not enough for a strawberry crumble.  I also had some early blueberries that needed used, but not enough for a blueberry crumble.  What is a girl to do?  Combine them of course!  And add in a few other things for the fun of it.

For starters, I had coconut flakes on hand that I thought would go really well, and wanted a nice hearty oatmeal-y {is that even a word?} texture.  I decided to leave out the cinnamon this time, because I wasn’t sure how it would pair with the coconut, let alone how the kids would react if and when they found out mom put coconut in this recipe.

It turns out, they didn’t care in the least.  They were all “eww, coconut” at first, and then “wow, there’s coconut in here” as they shovelled the food in their face.

Okay, so they didn’t really shovel it in, but they ate it alarmingly fast and yet were still surprised by the fact that mom would sneak something healthy into their food.  It makes me wonder where they have been their whole lives.  I do it all the time, and they don’t notice!

This recipe was such a hit, it even had Hubs’ coworkers wondering where their share was.  Sad to say, it didn’t last long enough for there to be any to share folks!  That’s just how fast this flies out of the pan in our house.

Ingredients:

For the Dough

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Filling

• 4 cups fresh berries
• 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons arrowroot powder {I have substituted corn starch in the past, I didn’t have any on hand}
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.  Grease a 9×13 pan.
2. For the dough, in a medium bowl, stir together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Blend in the butter and egg until the dough resembles crumbs.
3. Pat half of the dough in the prepared pan.  Reserve the remainder
4. For the filling, stir together the sugar, arrowroot powder and lemon juice in a separate bowl.  Gently fold in the berries and coconut flakes.
5. Spread the mixture evenly on top of the dough.  Top with remaining dough mixture.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top is slightly brown.  Cool completely and cut into squares before serving.  Enjoy!