Blueberry Crumb Bars
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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!
How to Make Blueberry Crumb Bars
Blueberry Crumb Bars
Ingredients
Blueberry Filling
- 5 cups (840 g) blueberries, divided
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon butter
Crumb Base/Topping
- 3 ¼ cups (405 g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (150 g) sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar, tightly packed
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (227 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 large egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and lightly grease a 9x13 glass baking dish. Set aside.
- In small saucepan, combine 3 cups blueberries (505g), sugar, cornstarch, salt, and lemon juice over medium-low heat.5 cups (840 g) blueberries, ½ cup (100 g) sugar, 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, ⅛ teaspoon salt, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- Stir frequently until the blueberries release their juices, and the mixture is very liquidy (about 5-8 mins).
- Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
- 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.½ teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 Tablespoon butter
- To prepare your cookie crust, combine flour, sugars, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt in a food processor and pulse briefly until combined.3 ¼ cups (405 g) all-purpose flour, ¾ cup (150 g) sugar , ¼ cup (50 g) light brown sugar, tightly packed, ½ teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, ½ teaspoon salt
- Sprinkle your butter pieces evenly over the dry ingredients and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.1 cup (227 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- Add egg and vanilla extract and pulse again until mixture just begins to cling together.1 large egg yolk, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pour ½ 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.
- Pour your cooled blueberry filling evenly over the crust.
- Use your hands to sprinkle the remaining crust mixture evenly over the top of the filling.
- 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.
- 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!
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2-3 days or in the refrigerator for up to five days.Gluten-free note
I have not tried it myself, but others have successfully made this recipe with Cup4Cup gluten-free flour.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
Can you use frozen blueberries when they are not in season?
Hi Timothy! You can certainly use frozen berries here. 🙂
Hello! Can I use a metal 9×13 or does it absolutely have to be baked in a glass one? Thanks!
Hi Alison! You can use a metal dish. Your bake time may change so just be sure to keep an eye on it. 🙂
I’m giving this a 5 star rating without actually trying this recipe since I love all your other recipes I’ve tried. I just wanted to ask if I can use froze. Blueberries?
Hi Linda! You can certainly use frozen berries here. 🙂
I made them with the frozen blueberries and added an extra tablespoon of cornstarch, since frozen blueberries have more liquid. They came out great!
These sound great, but how about using your amazing crumb topping that you provided the recipe for some time ago. I have used it on my blueberry muffins. I think I would like to try it on these bars too. What say you.
Hi Cathy! The streusel could work, but I prefer the topping here. I think the streusel could potentially over-brown a little bit. 🙂
BAKE THIS…OMG! I am an experienced baker therefore a sweets snob. I have tried for years to find a blueberry bar that has some zip, zig and doesn’t just taste flat like blueberries and crust. I have baked from the most popular recipe websites and NONE have something as flavorful with zing and a great texture with the bit of “crunch” as the bottom layer. Do yourself and your family a favor and “get to baking!”
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Nancie! I’m so glad you enjoyed these bars so much! 🙂
On this page your recipe says to use 3 cups of blueberries but then list right after it as 5 cups in the list–I am confused which one is it? Please help, as I think this recipe sounds delicious!
(In small saucepan, combine 3 cups blueberries (505g), sugar, cornstarch, salt, and lemon juice over medium-low heat.)
(5 cups (840 g) blueberries, ½ cup (100 g) sugar, 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, ⅛ teaspoon salt, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice)
Hi Jody! I’m sorry for the confusion! I will correct that. The list below the steps just pulls from the ingredients listed above. You need 3 cups of blueberries in step 2 and the remaining 2 cups come in step 5. So you do need 5 cups total. 🙂
Excellent!
Here I am with another variation: pumpkin pie crumb bars. I used your pumpkin pie recipe with two changes. I used 2 whole eggs and 1 egg white, since I needed an egg yolk for the base/crumb, and I used just 1/2 cup of cream, so the filling wouldn’t be too thin to hold up the crumbs. It was a total success. It’s great to have a version for the winter, when berries are expensive
I know you already have Pumpkin Bars, but I prefer pumpkin in creamy applications.
I keep trying variations, to expand the possibilities. I mentioned that I had done a raspberry version before, and it was my favorite, because raspberries are so flavorful. I recently bought some jarred sour cherries, packed in cherry juice, so I decided to use them here. Since they’re expensive, I just used two 12-ounce jars, and did 2/3 of a batch in a 9×9 pan. Since there was far less fruit, there was far less flavor, but the flavor there was was excellent, so I consider them to be a success. If I ever get fresh sour cherries, I’ll try it again with a large amount of them, and I think I’ll be very happy.
This came out raw on the bottom. The top was golden and bubbly though. Not really edible. Disappointing.
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, Ellen! It sounds like they just needed to bake a little bit longer.
These are very delicious. Everyone loves them and I get requests to make these a lot .5 stars from me!
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Tina! 🙂
What can I use if I don’t have a food processor?
Hi Nancy! A pastry cutter will work, but it will be more difficult.
Could you tell me what the benefit of an egg is? The majority of recipes don’t call for an egg in crumble, so I’m really curious before making them. The pic just makes my mouth water!
Hi Cathy! The egg helps bind the crumb together. 🙂
Absolutely Amazing!! I had to try just a taste before they were cooled properly and that made the wait even more difficult!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Nicole! Keeping yourself from eating them is the hardest part! 🙂
can you use preserves in this recipe?
Hi Kim! That should work. 🙂
I can’t wait to make this recipe!
Can I use a kitchenaid stand mixer instead of a food processor?
Unfortunately the stand mixer won’t be the same. It’s going to be more difficult to work with the batter if you use the stand mixer. 🙁
Took these to a summer barbecue, and they were a hit! Perfect with a side of vanilla bean ice cream. Some people had seconds. There were absolutely no leftovers. My picky son wants me to make them again asap!
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much, Veronica! 🙂