Blueberry Crumb Bars

 

 

The weather in L.A. is getting hotter and hotter, and turning on the oven would be the least thing to do because it can heat up the whole house like a furnace. Bad idea.    However, I have a few good reasons to turn on the oven to bake this sweet treat.  

First, waking up in the morning the hubby was telling me that last night he dreamt about a gorgeous blueberry pie he saw at the buffet restaurant. What I could hear from him was…”I’ve been thinking about blueberry pie. Can you make me one?!?” Second, the morning’s weather was kind of a little strange. The morning was gloomy and cool like the rain has just passed when compared to the yesterday’s weather. And the sun hadn’t shown up even it was already nine o’clock! Third, I had not made any thing in the oven for a while since the hot summer weather has become a giant oven on earth, and I thought of today as a perfect opportunity to bake something easy and quick before the sun has realized that it has to show up to torment people as it supposed to do in the summer.

  
These blueberry bars turned out as delightful as I had hoped for, and the hubby was, of course, very happy about it even though it was not the blueberry pie he dreamt about. Maybe next time!

What you need:   make 9 - 16 bars depends on how you cut it

For crust:

1 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. sugar
6 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cubed

For filling:

3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup sugar
1 small lemon juice + zest
1 tsp. vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
3 tbsp. cornstarch

For crumb topping:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup roll oats
3 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon powder

How to:

 

- Preheat the oven to 350’F and grease the 8x8 pan with butter or cooking spray, set aside.   I also used a piece of aluminum foil over the pan which I forgot to grease the pan first!  Not good!
- Combine blueberries, sugar, lemon juice and zest, salt, and vanilla in the medium pan over medium heat and cook until the sugar is dissolved, ant then add cornstarch and stir. The filling will turn thick, take off the heat and let it cool
- In a mixing bowl, prepare the base crust by using the pastry cutter cut butter cubes into flour until it form crumbs.  Press the based flour into the bottom of the greased pan evenly and bake for 12 minutes.
- Make the crumb topping the same way of making the base, and set aside
- When the based is done, tale it out from the oven, fill in the filling, spread evenly with the crumb topping, put it back to the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes or until it’s bubbly and the crumb topping turn golden brown
- When it’s done, let it complete cool down for at least 4 hours before cutting in to squares

Enjoy!

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