Blueberry Crumb Bars

A few Saturdays ago, it snowed a good four or five inches. GM was supposed to get groomed but the salon was closed due to the inclement weather. With our plans down the drain, my sister and I got bundled up and went to shovel the driveway. The snow was perfect snowball snow. It was heavy and packable, which made for a terrible shoveling experience. We were tired and burnt out after five minutes of pushing the snow around. GM, on the other hand, had the time of his life, running around, pushing his face into the snow, and rolling around like a maniac.

After all of that, we couldn't muster the will to go back out to get our weekly groceries. We rationalized postponing the trip because we had enough in the fridge and pantry to get by for the day. It's always those moments that makes me incredibly grateful for our well-stocked kitchen.

Today, I'm sharing a blueberry crumb bar that was made with pantry ingredients. We always have flour and sugar in the pantry and we had a giant bag of frozen blueberries in the freezer.

Ingredients:

2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)

1 teaspoon orange zest

juice & pulp of 1 orange

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2½ cups flour

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick cold butter (½ cup)

¼ to ½ cup milk

To season the blueberries, add some orange zest, orange juice and pulp, sugar, vanilla extract, and corn starch and toss together.

To make the crust pulse cold cubed butter, flour, brown sugar, and salt in a food processor until it's like coarse sand with a few bigger pieces of butter.

Drizzle in some cold milk and pulse until the dough just comes together. Start with 1/4 cup and add more if necessary.

Press half of the dough into the bottom of a parchment-lined 9" x 9" pan. Then, pour in the blueberry mixture.

Crumble the remaining dough over the top and then pop the whole pan into a 375F oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Let the bars cool before cutting them into squares and serve them up.

The crust is crumbly and buttery and lightly sweet. The blueberries are sweet and jam-like after having baked in the oven and I love the smell of orange. I know that lemon and blueberry are the classic combination but I think orange is a really nice substitute too.

These aren't some novel invention. It's blueberry crumb bars; you know what they're like.

Here's the recipe page: