Blueberry Crumb Bars

These Blueberry Crumb Bars are made with a real blueberry filling (no canned pie filling here!) and a buttery crust and crumbly topping! 

I’m finally back home after a long weekend at a conference in Salt Lake City spent surrounded by other incredible bloggers and plenty of incredible food.

The trip was amazing, minus the TSA pat down just before the flight home because a bag of chili that I tried to bring home from the conference alerted as “explosive” during a TSA check.

That was… awkward. 😳

Needless to say the chili was in fact not explosive, but I am a little concerned about eating it now. This is why I’m a desserts person. A from-scratch baker, that way I don’t have to worry about my food alerting as explosive.

These blueberry crumb bars are 100% from-scratch and 100% non-explosive. 

We start with a homemade blueberry pie filling for the juicy center layer of these blueberry crumb bars. You can use fresh or frozen berries, you’ll cook them in a saucepan with some sugar and corn starch until the filling is thick and then add more fresh berries, a pat of butter, and some vanilla extract for flavor.

Both the crust and the buttery, cobbled topping are made from the same shortbread-esque cookie mixture to keep things simple (and delicious).

We’ll make this crumbly cookie base and topping in our food processor, you can use a pastry cutter instead, but the food processor is going to be the quickest and easiest way to do this.  The mixture should be very crumbly, and you’ll use your hands to pat half of it evenly into the bottom of a baking dish, then layer your filling, then top everything off with the remaining crumbly cookie mixture.

Once these blueberry crumb bars have finished baking and are still hot, they will be hard to cut. The filling won’t be very solid and the crumble will actually crumble apart if it’s still warm. In order for these bars to be sliceable, you will need to let them cool for about 2-3 hours.

…That being said, I am 100% for scooping them out of the pan with the spoon and enjoying them warm (or even topped with ice cream!). Yes, they will totally fall apart if you do that, but they are so good warm it’s worth it.

Enjoy!

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How to Make Blueberry Crumb Bars

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Blueberry Crumb Bars

Buttery Blueberry Crumble Bars

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 35 minutes

Servings 24 squares

Author Samantha Merritt

Ingredients

Blueberry Filling

• 5 cups blueberries divided (840g)
• 1/2 cup sugar (100g)
• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 Tablespoon butter

Crumb Base/Topping

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (405g)
• 3/4 cup sugar (150g)
• ¼ cup light brown sugar, tightly packed (50g)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes (227g)
• 1 large egg yolk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and lightly grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. Set aside.

2. In small saucepan, combine 3 cups blueberries (505g), sugar, cornstarch, salt, and lemon juice over medium-low heat.

3. Stir frequently until the blueberries release their juices, and the mixture is very liquidy (about 5-8 mins).

4. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

5. Boil (still stirring constantly) for 1 minutes and remove from heat. 

   Add remaining 2 cups of blueberries, butter, and vanilla extract and stir until butter is melted.  Allow to cool while you prepare your crust.

6. To prepare your cookie crust, combine flour, sugars, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly until combined.

7. Sprinkle your butter pieces evenly over the dry ingredients and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

8. Add egg and vanilla extract and pulse again until mixture just begins to cling together.

9. Pour 1/2 of your cookie batter into the bottom of your prepared pan and use your hands or the back of a spoon to press evenly into the bottom of the pan to form a crust.

10. Pour your cooled blueberry filling evenly over the crust.

11. Use your hands to sprinkle the remaining crust mixture evenly over the top of the filling.

12. Transfer to the oven and bake on 350F (175C) for 55-60 minutes or until the top of the blueberry crumb bars is golden brown.

13. Allow to cool completely (2-3 hours) before slicing and serving. If you prefer to enjoy these warm the crumb bars WILL fall apart if sliced before they have cooled and set, so plan to use a spoon!