Blueberry Crumble Bars

In the summers, we go a local berry farm and pick oodles and oodles of blueberries.  Our family loves fresh berries, and getting them by the pound from a local farm is the best option for us.  We’ve been known to grab as many as 35 pounds of berries in the summer to last us until the berries are in season the following year.  What do we do with 35 pounds of blueberries?  We freeze some, make jellies, syrups and just can them in a simple syrup.  It’s incredibly helpful to have some on hand for cooking in the winter months, and don’t have to worry about paying full price for them in the frigid winter months.

One of our favorite blueberry recipes though is for blueberry crumble bars.  It’s slightly sweet, full of flavor with a light cinnamon twist, and has a nice, pastry like texture.  Whenever I make these, they don’t last long!

INGREDIENTS:

For the dough:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour {I use a mix of unbleached all-purpose and whole wheat flours}
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, cut into cubes
• 1 egg, beaten

For the filling:

• 4 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 teaspoons cornstarch
• 3 Tablespoons lemon juice {or the juice of 1 lemon}

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.  Grease a 9×13 pan.  {I used an 11×17 and it came out just fine}.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
3. Using a fork or pastry cutter, blend in the butter and egg until the dough resembles crumbs.
4. Pat 1/2 to 2/3 of the dough in the prepared pan.
5. For the filling, stir together the sugar, corn starch and lemon juice in a separate bowl.  Gently fold in the blueberries.
6. Evenly spread the blueberry mixture on top of the dough.  Top with remaining dough mixture.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top is slightly brown.  Cool completely before serving.

Adapted from AllRecipes.com