Blueberry Lemon Crumb Bars

I have really starting loving blueberries this year. I guess because I started baking more, but mainly because they are just delicious. You’ll see on this blog that I’ve made an awesome blueberry pound cake, scones, muffins…..I feel like Bubba on Forest Gump naming all the ways you can use blueberries. It's so true though. Who knew you could make so many delicious things with blueberries?? Well, you're lucky you have me to lead you in the right direction....to the land of blueberries!

This could be a delicious breakfast treat or a yummy dessert. I had friends over for dinner and served it as dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Of course, I had my ice cream on the side. I don't like things touching, but that's for another therapy session. Let's get back to the crumb cake.....

Here's what you need to get started:


Ingredients

1 cup white granulated sugar (for a lower fat version, use ½ c splenda and ½ c sugar)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
zest of two lemons
 
Filling

4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar ( I used ½ c Splenda)
3 teaspoons cornstarch


Directions

1.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray a 9×13 inch pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2.In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, salt, lemon zest and baking powder.

3. In a small bowl, whisk the egg and vanilla together until combined.
4. Use pastry cutter or your food processor to blend the flour mixture with the butter and egg/vanilla mixture. I find the easiest method is to grate very cold butter into the mix.  That way I didn’t have to get the food processor dirty!

After mixing the butter in with the dry ingredients, the dough will be crumbly (really an understatement, it is VERY crumbly). Pat half of dough into the prepared pan. Remaining half will be used as topping.

5. In another bowl, stir together 1/2 sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries and coat with mixture. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust.

Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares. Enjoy!