Scrumptious Blueberry Crumble Bars

I love blueberries in all forms: fresh, frozen, jam, compote, ice-cream, cake, yogurt….blueberry anything and everything.  While our fridge is constantly stocked with fresh blueberries, I almost never use fresh blueberries for cooking.  It just seems like a waste to boil down a load of fresh juicy and Expensive blueberries. 

Because of my penchant for blueberry type desserts, I tend to have a ton of frozen blueberries in the freezer.  Just as easy to use and a lot cheaper.  Gotta save those pennies when we can!  I’ve been known to munch my way through a packet of frozen blueberries as well – lovely during summer!

So, nothing really new about these bars and there have been a million other versions of blueberry crumble bars posted on the web.  However, I love how easy this recipe is to make..and eat!  It works as a snack and it also works as a hot pudding type dessert!

This recipe was adapted from here.

What I used for the crumble pastry:

190g rolled oats

135g plain flour

127g whole wheat flour

125g caster sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

175g unsalted butter, slightly softened at room temperature

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbs cold water

What I used for the filling:

Roughly 3-4 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries

125g caster sugar

lemon juice from ½ a lemon

40g cornflour

What I did:

1. Preheat your oven to 180C.

2. Grease and line a 20cm x 20cm square baking tin.

3. Mix the blueberries, caster sugar, lemon juice and corn flour. 
4. I used frozen blueberries and didn’t defrost them ahead of time, so I zapped them in the microwave to defrost!  Set this aside.

5. Mix the plain and wholewheat flour, oats, cinnamon, salt, sugar, butter and vanilla.  I used my food processor for this.

6. Add the water and mix again.

7. Spread 2/3 of the crumble mixture in the baking tin and press down with your fingers.

8. Spread the prepared blueberry filling over the mixture in the baking tin.

9. Pour the remaining crumble mixture over the blueberries and lightly press down.

10. Bake for roughly 45 minutes until slightly browned.

11. Allow to cool in the tin.

I tend to eat this as a snack but my other half has decided that’s it’s better hot swimming in a pool of custard!