• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • Youtube
Sugar Spun Run
  • All Recipes
  • Desserts
    • Cookies
    • Candy
    • Bars & Brownies
    • Cake
    • Pies
  • Breads
  • Savory
  • Breakfast
    • Muffins
    • Scones
  • Seasonal
    • Cozy Winter / Holiday Treats
    • Easter / Spring
    • Fall Recipes
    • Summer Recipes
  • Shop
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Home
  • About Me
  • All Recipes
  • Contact/Work with Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • Youtube
  • ×
    You are here: Home / Desserts / Bars & Brownies / Strawberry Crumb Bars

    Strawberry Crumb Bars

    June 19, 2019 By Sam 53 Comments

    This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure policy.
    Jump to Recipe Jump to Video Print Recipe
    Strawberry Crumb Bars

    These Strawberry Crumb Bars are made with a buttery shortbread-esque crust and crumble topping and filled with a fresh, homemade strawberry jam center. Recipe includes a how-to video!

    Strawberry crumb bars on wood cutting board

    Today’s Strawberry Crumb Bars are a direct result of strawberry picking with absolutely no self control.

    Every year that we go strawberry picking, Zach and I pick way more berries than we can possibly eat, and this year was no exception (so you can expect a few more strawberry recipes in the future!). In the past, I’ve used our surplus of berries to make Strawberry Pop Tarts, Strawberry Muffins, Strawberry Shortcake, and Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie. We’re adding to our strawberry collection today with these Strawberry Crumb Bars.

    With a buttery crust, tender, shortbread-like crust, a fresh strawberry jam filling, and that golden brown crumbly topping, these strawberry crumb bars are absolutely irresistible. While I used fresh-picked strawberries for today’s recipe, they’ll be every bit as good with the kind you buy at the store.

    How to make strawberry filling for strawberry crumb bars

    How to Make Strawberry Crumb Bars

    First, Make your Filling

    1. Make your filling first (see photos above) so that it has some time to cool before you pour it into your crust. Combine strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt in a saucepan and cook until your berries release their juices.
    2. Bring everything to a boil, then add more strawberries and continue to cook another minute or so until the filling is thickened.
    3. Let the filling cool while you prepare your crumble.

    Make your Crust & Crumble Topping

    My food processor has been getting quite the workout lately. Between my pie crust, my peach cobbler, and today’s strawberry crumb bars it’s become one of the most-used tools in my kitchen (this is the food processor I use). Today it’s going to make quick work of our crust and crumble.

    1. Combine flour, sugar & brown sugar, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt in food processor. Pulse until ingredients are combined.
    2. Cut 1 cup of cold butter into 16 pieces and scatter the pieces over your flour mixture. Pulse again until the butter is cut into your flour mixture and the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
    3. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract. Process until mixture is crumbly but beginning to stick together (see image below, if you pinch the dough it should stick together but it should still be crumbly).

    Making buttery crumb layer for strawberry crumb bars

    Assemble!

    1. Pour half of your crumble mixture into a lightly buttered 13×9 baking dish. Use your hands or the back of a spoon to press the dough into an even layer to form your crust.
    2. Pour your strawberry mixture evenly over the crust layer.
    3. Use your hands to distribute/crumble the remaining dough over the top of the berries.
    4. Bake until the top layer is a light golden brown!

    How to make Strawberry Crumb Bars: Pressing crust into pan

    Tips for Making Strawberry Crumb Bars

    You’re going to want to use a food processor

    For a few of my pastry recipes (like my pie crust and scones) I recommend using a food processor, but a pastry cutter will work if you don’t have one. However, the crumble layer for this recipe is very dry, and if you try to cut everything together by hand, you’re going to have a tough time. It’s not impossible, but be prepared for a serious arm workout.

    Let it Cool

    While these strawberry crumb bars are still warm, they’re going to be almost impossible to slice. Let the bars cool completely before slicing, at least if you want to be able to pick them up and eat them. If you’re impatient, you can just scoop your crumb bars by the spoonful onto a plate and enjoy warm topped with ice cream. They’re pretty good that way, too.

    Strawberry crumb bar with a bite out of it

    Enjoy!

    More Recipes You Might Like:

    • Strawberry Shortcake
    • Strawberry Muffins
    • Blueberry Crumb Bars

    Let’s bake together! Be sure to check out my video at the bottom of the recipe where I’ll show you exactly how I make these strawberry crumb bars in my own kitchen! If you enjoy watching, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel where I’ve already uploaded over 150 recipe videos that you can watch for free!

    strawberry crumb bars

    Strawberry Crumb Bars

    Strawberry Crumb Bars! Refreshing buttery bars with a bright homemade strawberry jam filling. 
    I strongly recommend using a food processor to make this recipe.
    Be sure to check out the how-to VIDEO just below the recipe!
    5 from 17 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: bars, Dessert
    Cuisine: American
    Prep Time: 30 minutes
    Cook Time: 50 minutes
    Cooling Time: 1 hour
    Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
    Servings: 24 squares
    Calories: 196kcal
    Author: Sam Merritt

    Ingredients

    • 5 cups strawberries tops removed, quartered, divided (700g)
    • ½ cup granulated sugar (100g)
    • 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
    • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
    • ⅛ teaspoon salt
    • 1 Tablespoon butter

    Crumb layers

    • 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (405g)
    • ¾ cup granulated sugar (150g)
    • ¼ cup light brown sugar tightly packed (50g)
    • ½ teaspoon baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
    • ½ teaspoon salt
    • 1 cup unsalted butter cold, cut into small cubes (227g)
    • 1 large egg yolk
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and lightly butter the sides and bottom of a 9x13 glass baking dish¹. Set aside.
    • In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine 3 ½ cups strawberries (490g), sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and salt over medium-low heat.
    • Stir frequently until strawberries release their juices (about 5 or so minutes), then increase heat to medium/medium-high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly.
    • Boil for one minute (still stirring) then stir in remaining strawberries. 
    • Cook for another minute, then remove from heat. Add butter and stir until butter is melted. Allow mixture to cool while you prepare your crumble mixture.

    For Crumble

    • I strongly recommend using a food processor and not a pastry cutter for this step, as it’s a very dry mixture that will take a long time to work to the proper consistency manually.
    • To prepare crumble layer, combine flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt in the basin of a food processor. Pulse until combined.
    • Scatter butter pieces evenly over flour mixture and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
    • Add egg and vanilla extract and continue to blend until mixture is just beginning to cling together and holds together if you press the dough together with your fingers.
    • Pour approximately one half of the crumble mixture into your prepared pan and use your hands or the back of a spoon to evenly press the crumble mixture into your pan (see image in post for visual).
    • Pour strawberry mixture over crumb crust and spread so that it is evenly distributed. Use your hands to scatter remaining crumble mixture evenly over the top of the strawberry layer.
    • Transfer to 350F (175C) oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the top layer is just beginning to turn golden brown.
    • Allow to cool for 1-2 hours before slicing and serving (strawberry crumb bars will fall apart if sliced while they’re still warm, but they do taste good warm and messy topped with vanilla ice cream!).

    Notes

    ¹Baking dish

    If you opt to use a metal baking dish, the bake time may need to be reduced as your bars will cook faster.

    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

    This recipe has been successfully made using Cup4Cup gluten free flour. It was noted that the crust needed to bake longer than indicated in the recipe to become crisp.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1square | Calories: 196kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 29mg | Sodium: 72mg | Potassium: 69mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 550IU | Vitamin C: 15.7mg | Calcium: 110mg | Iron: 0.9mg

    Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.

    Tried this recipe? Show me on Instagram!Mention @SugarSpun_Sam or tag #sugarspunrun!
    « Star-Spangled Cookies
    Fruit Galette Recipe »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. hynes jim

      May 14, 2022 at 1:15 pm

      Hi Sam/Emily
      Boy, this is the first recipe I have tried that has turned out to be a disaster. My food processor is an 8 cup like the one you use but the butter never made it to the chopping blade. All of the cold pieces of butter remained on the top and never were chopped into the flour/sugar mix. Emptied the bowl and checked to see if the blade was configured correctly. Put it all back in the bowl and Ran it for minutes and same thing ensued. Eventually melted the connecting piece on the lid. Tossed it of course. Already had prepped the strawberries so i am going to use the pastry cutter this time.

      Not sure what i did wrong, but boy I sure did. and i need a new food processor.

      Reply
      • Sam

        May 16, 2022 at 3:31 pm

        O no! I’m so sorry that happened!! I have run into this issue before when I didn’t pulse the food processor. This will happen if you just turn it on instead of doing individual pulses. 🙁

        Reply
    2. Rashmi

      May 06, 2022 at 12:09 am

      Can we use frozen strawberries to make the filling?

      Reply
      • Sam

        May 06, 2022 at 8:44 am

        That should work. I would thaw them and still cut them up into pieces. 🙂

        Reply
    3. Kathy

      July 20, 2021 at 7:58 am

      5 stars
      Made these a couple weeks ago with fresh apple filling. This week I am making them with fresh blueberries. These bars are the best I’ve ever had!

      Reply
      • Sam

        July 20, 2021 at 1:33 pm

        I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Kathy! 🙂

        Reply
    4. Narmadha

      June 27, 2021 at 11:58 pm

      Hi Sam.Can I please know if there is a substitute for egg yolk?

      Reply
      • Sam

        June 28, 2021 at 10:22 pm

        Hi Narmadha! Unfortunately I haven’t tried a substitute so I’m not sure how one would work. You could increase the recipe by 50% for the crust from my lemon crumb bars. 🙂

        Reply
    « Older Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    The author (Sam) in blue shirt holding donut Hi, I'm Sam! I'm dedicated to bringing you sweet, simple, and from-scratch dessert recipes. My life may or may not be controlled by my sweet tooth. Send help (or chocolate). Read more about me.

    Cozy Soup Recipes

    bowl of chicken corn chowder topped with bacon and green onions

    Chicken Corn Chowder

    white bowl of hearty homemade tomato soup garnished with parmesan cheese, fresh basil, and cracked black pepper

    Tomato Soup

    mason jar of chicken broth made from a homemade chicken stock recipe

    Instant Pot Chicken Stock Recipe

    Bowl of broccoli cheddar soup with a spoon scooping out a bite.

    Broccoli Cheddar Soup

    lasagna soup in white bowl

    Lasagna Soup

    french onion soup in white bowl

    French Onion Soup

    Most Popular

    flaky biscuit on white cloth

    Easy Homemade Biscuits

    Pizza dough in glass bowl, after rising

    The Best Pizza Dough Recipe

    one bite missing from a slice of vanilla cake with chocolate frosting

    The Best Vanilla Cake Recipe

    Slice of cheesecake

    The Best Cheesecake Recipe

    Potato soup in bowl, with toppings

    The Ultimate Creamy Potato Soup

    Stack of cookies made from this chocolate chip cookie recipe with melty chocolate chips and a bite missing from the top cookie

    The WORST Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

    places sugar spun run has been featured (Women's Day, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Country Living, the huffington post, People, Delish, MSN, TLC, Parade, Better Homes & Gardens, Buzzfeed)
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • Youtube

    Privacy Policy|Accessibility Statement

    Footer

    Subscribe To My Newsletter!

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    ABOUT

    • About Me
    • Policies, Disclosure & Privacy
    • Terms of Use

    CONTACT

    • Contact
    • Work with Me!

    [widget id="simple-social-icons-3"]

    © 2020 Sugar Spun Run. All Rights Reserved