The Easter Bunny's Blueberry Crumb Bars
April 17, 2017
“One of the Easter Bunny's gifts”
I stacked these chunky blueberry crumb bars in a polka-dot berry basket lined with brown paper and tied it with a raffia bow. They were one of the Easter Bunny's gifts.
A crumb bar uses one buttery dough twice: pressed firm for the base and crumbled loosely over the top, with a layer of fruit in between. I toss the blueberries with sugar, lemon and a little starch so the juices thicken as they bake. The packaging matters too. I have made the point on my blog that people judge baking with their eyes first, and here the styling does as much work as the recipe.
This article is written in Corey’s voice for this tribute site, based on his captions and blog. His own words are the quotes above.
Blueberry Crumb Bars
Crumb bars are a simple American bar cookie in which one buttery dough does two jobs, pressed into the pan as a base and scattered over the fruit as a streusel top. Between the layers, fresh blueberries cook down with lemon and a little cornstarch into a jammy filling. They travel well and taste best the day after baking.
Ingredients
Crumb dough
- 375 g all-purpose flour (3 cups)
- 200 g granulated sugar (1 cup)
- 4 g baking powder (1 tsp)
- 3 g fine salt (1/2 tsp)
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 225 g cold unsalted butter, cubed (1 cup)
- 50 g egg (1 large)
- 4 g vanilla extract (1 tsp)
Blueberry filling
- 600 g blueberries, fresh or frozen and not thawed (4 cups)
- 100 g granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
- 24 g cornstarch (3 tbsp)
- 30 g lemon juice (2 tbsp)
- Pinch of fine salt
Method
- Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a 9 x 13 inch (23 x 33 cm) metal pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on the long sides.
- Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and zest. Rub or cut in the cold butter until the largest pieces are the size of peas.
- Beat the egg with the vanilla and fork it through the mixture until it forms moist, uneven crumbs that hold together when squeezed.
- Press a little more than half the crumbs firmly into the pan in an even layer. Keep the rest cold.
- Toss the blueberries with the sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and salt until evenly coated, and spread them over the base with all their juices.
- Squeeze the remaining dough into clumps and scatter them over the berries, leaving some fruit showing.
- Bake 45-55 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the filling bubbles thickly near the centre.
- Cool completely in the pan, at least 2 hours, then lift out and cut into bars. Chilling for an hour first gives the cleanest edges.
Chef’s notes
- Cutting the bars warm gives a loose, runny filling. The cornstarch sets only once the bars are fully cool.
- With frozen berries, add 5-10 minutes to the bake and do not thaw them, or they will bleed and soak the base.
- A sandy top that will not clump needs a firmer squeeze, or a teaspoon of cold water worked into the reserved crumbs.
- The bars keep 3 days at room temperature and freeze well for a month.
Drawn from the methods of
- King Arthur Baking Company
- Dorie Greenspan, Baking: From My Home to Yours (2006)
- Claire Saffitz, Dessert Person (2020)
Corey has not published his own formula for this piece. This reference recipe is compiled from the published methods of the chefs and bakers listed above, written in our own words.
