Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Tasty Tuesday!

Ahhh, another lovely week of summer in Chicago. Where we all wore coats and gloves and blankets to the 53 overcast and windy baseball game on Saturday. Where I decided that no, it isn't time to turn off my oven for the season, and I can make one more sweet treat before I resort entirely to the grill.

Of course, my first choice was chocolate chip bars, but then I decided that maybe I should be nice to Little Miss and see if I could make something dairy-free instead. I thought about what I could do for awhile, and I finally came up with an idea. And luckily, I had frozen blueberries in my freezer -- as opposed to sitting on my counter? -- so we were in luck.

I present you with...

Blueberry Crumble Bars



Ingredients:
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 t baking powder
3 c all-purpose flour
1/4 t salt
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1 c shortening - if you aren't dairy free, use butter and it will taste even better
1 egg
1/2 t almond extract
4 c blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 orange, zested
1/2 c white sugar
1 T cornstarch

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together 1/2 cup each brown and white sugar, 3 cups flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the shortening, almond extract and egg. The dough will be crumbly.

Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

In another bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries. Add the orange zest, and mix again. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust, then crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes then turn up the heat to 400 degrees for the last 15 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

My husband, who claims to not like dairy free desserts, went for seconds while I was putting the wee ones to bed. His second square about about 3x3". He pronounced it a winner, and Little Miss asked me to make it again. I think I will. Once summer in Chicago ends -- assuming it ever starts!

It reminds me a lot of my mom's blueberry streusel coffeecake without pretending to be something that's for breakfast that I instead eat anytime I start getting hungry, whether it's 8am or 9pm, once it's made. I like that it's lighter and more unique than a lot of the bar recipes I have.



And of course, as always go check out this week's Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace!

Enjoy!

15 comments:

septembermom June 9, 2009 at 10:14 AM  

Michelle, you need to put together a cook book! You know how to make family friendly recipes. I appreciate your Tasty Tuesdays:)

MaBunny June 9, 2009 at 10:45 AM  

Oh those look yummy MIchelle! I love this time of year, perfect for Blueberry buckle!

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet June 9, 2009 at 12:22 PM  

Yum! :D Blueberries are a fave of mine. I wish we had a place where we could pick them here but alas have to stick to frozen or picking them up from the produce. :D

Debbie June 9, 2009 at 1:20 PM  

Delish! That is certainly a recipe I will try.

Jeff and Charli Lee June 9, 2009 at 2:19 PM  

Yum!

You guys are getting our crappy weather. We had a miserable cold weekend her as well. But your blueberry bars sound like the perfect treat to take your mind off it.

Roxane June 9, 2009 at 5:01 PM  

You totally inspired me to bake today! I made oatmeal raisin cookies :) but i'll have to try the blueberry bars soon!

Lisa@BlessedwithGrace June 9, 2009 at 5:01 PM  

Oh yum. There have been several great blueberry recipes, today, for TMTT. I love them all. Thanks for yours.

SnoWhite June 9, 2009 at 7:28 PM  

I LOVE blueberries ... I'm bookmarking this one :) Thanks!

Alisa - Frugal Foodie June 9, 2009 at 7:35 PM  

Glad you didn't retire the oven yet; I love crumb bars!

xxxx June 10, 2009 at 6:48 PM  

Ditto on the cookbook!! I would be first in line!

Michelle June 10, 2009 at 10:21 PM  

septembermom - Visit kidsfeedingkids.blogspot.com. They are putting together a cookbook that is for kids and by kids. And yes, I have some recipes submitted there. For $20, you get the cookbook with ~800 recipes and I believe it's 80 pounds of food can be bought with the proceeds to feed hungry kids in Northern Illinois.

MaBunny - Mmmm blueberry buckle. Good idea!

Sherry - I'm with you. I actually looked up a place in Michigan last year, but ... we never made it. I still have the info, so maybe this year!

Debbie - Oh go for it. Our pan lasted three days. It was soooo good!

Jeff - Yep, the blueberry bars do help. The weather guy today made the comment that it's actually more typical of April right now than June. Downtown MAY hit 60 tomorrow. For the high.

Roxane - Go you! I hope they were good -- I love oatmeal raisin cookies.

Lisa - It must be that season! Mmmm, I have to go check out some.

Alisa - At this rate, I may not retire it all summer long!

Swishy - See the above comment. Nice to know you all like the recipes :)

Angela June 14, 2009 at 9:05 AM  

Fun! I love blueberry recipes. And I am still smiling at the idea that you never turn on your oven - at all! - during the summer. I just can't pass up some of my faves (cajun meat loaf, baked sweet potatoes, onion roasted potatoes...hmmm... potatoes of all kinds, it seems!) during the summer. But I am impressed at your ability to cook without it!

:-)

BPOTW June 14, 2009 at 3:27 PM  

That looks lovely and delish! Thanks for sharing.

Gombojav Tribe June 16, 2009 at 5:39 PM  

Yummy! I have blueberries at the moment. Maybe this is on the menu for later!

Michelle June 17, 2009 at 11:50 PM  

Angela - Ohhh you can make many of those items on the grill. Trust me. You'd be amazed at what the grill can do!

BPOTW - It is... in my humble opinion!

Gombojav Tribe - Ohhhh I hope it is for you. It's so good. If you try it, let me know what you think!

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