Blueberry Crumb Bars
Loaded with blueberries, these Blueberry Crumb Bars are the perfect summer dessert!
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For that first summer, we planted a little bit of everything in that garden. Part of it was over-excitement, and part of it was trying to figure out what would grow well here in New York. In hindsight, we were spoiled in the south. We could virtually toss some seeds on the ground and overnight you’d have an entire tree. (I might have exaggerated that a bit.) But we also had to wake up with the birds on the weekends in the south to do our yardwork. By 10am, it was way too hot to be outside working. So gardening in New York was a new adventure for us.
Our excitement that year led to an overgrown garden. Seriously. The tomatoes were like a jungle, and I had to use my Inspector Gadget arms to weave my way into the midst of that jungle to pull out the ripe tomatoes. We learned our lesson, and now we space out our plants a bit more. But back to the garden. What are your favorite things to grow?
For us, we grow bell peppers, tomatoes, jalapenos, peas and sometimes banana peppers. Those are the garden staples. Aside from those, we kinda rotate through other plants. Last year, we tried our hand at lettuce again, and it grew quite well. (For the record, garden lettuce tastes WAY better than store-bought lettuce. Plus, it’s kinda fun to just go out and pick a few leaves each evening for a side salad with dinner. I just did that last night, in fact.)
Aside from those yearly crops, we also planted fruit trees/bushes all over the yard. We planted a couple of apple trees along with a cherry tree and a nectarine tree. We planted an arctic variety of kiwi that goes quite well here in upstate New York. Seriously, the kiwi has vined down the entire length of our yard, and each summer the vines shooting up from the fence remind me of some sort of sea creature. We’ve yet to get any actual kiwi, but we’ve heard it can take 5 years for the arctic variety to produce fruit. So stay tuned…this could finally be the year!
And of course we also planted berries. Raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. The raspberries have done fantastically well, but the blueberries and blackberries struggle a bit. I suspect it might have something to do with the pH in our soil, but I haven’t spent the time yet to figure that one out. We get a few berries off of those bushes each year, but not as many as I would like.
So where does all of this garden talk lead? Well to these Blueberry Crumb Bars, of course! As our blueberry bushes are a bit stubborn, I usually end up picking up blueberries at the store. We love fruit desserts in the summer, and these crumb bars are a go-to around here. I adapted this recipe from one that my mother used to make when I was a kid. And guess what? This recipe couldn’t be any easier if it tried! The crumb topping is the same mixture as the crust. And the middle portion is mostly just berries. These Blueberry Crumb Bars are easy + delicious, and the recipe makes a huge tray. We packaged most of this batch up and sent it as a thank you to Robbie’s teachers at daycare.
When it comes to ingredients, I can be kinda picky. Especially when the recipes are super simple. Bob’s Red Mill has been my go-to flour for years, and I used their All-Purpose Flour to make these Blueberry Crumb Bars. (I also used Bob’s old-fashioned rolled oats, too.) Bob’s All-Purpose Flour is unbleached and unbromated. That basically means it has less additives and chemicals. You guys know that I bake a lot. So it should come as no surprise that I keep a large glass jar of Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Flour on our kitchen counter. (I also keep a jar of bread flour on the counter, too.) Most of our appliances (including my mixer) go in the cabinets…but the flour? That stays out for easy access!
If you’re looking for a go-to summer dessert, then put these Blueberry Crumb Bars on the list! And for the record, the same base can be used for other fruits, too. Growing up, my Mom rotated between blueberry, blackberry and raspberry. Now that we live up here in apple country, I should see if this recipe works for apples, too!
And now I have rambled way too long about gardens and summer desserts…
Do you plant a garden each year? What are your go-to crops?
Blueberry Crumb Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
For the Blueberries
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1½ Tbsp cornstarch
- 4 cups blueberries fresh or frozen
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Lightly grease a 9”x13” baking pan.
- In a medium bowl, add melted butter, flour, old-fashioned oats, sugar and brown sugar; stir until well combined.
- Remove 2 cups of this mixture and set aside. Press remaining Crust mixture into prepared baking pan.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the lemon juice and cornstarch. Add blueberries and gently stir until well combined. Spread blueberry mixture evenly into baking pan.
- Crumble the remaining crust mixture evenly on top of blueberry layer. (Tip: It’s ok to leave some of the crust in larger chunks here!)
- Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until crumb topping is light golden brown. Let pan cool completely before slicing into bars.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bob’s Red Mill.
The opinions and recipe are all my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Spiced!
We do have a garden. We also have blueberries, but this will only be the 3rd year for those. We will probably only get a handful….I can’t wait till we get buckets full! I love fruit desserts and this blueberry crumb looks super tasty! I especially like the crumb topping!
Haha…I know you have a garden, Kathy! I get jealous looking at your photos of the entire apple orchard. 🙂 I’m with on the blueberries, though. Ours just don’t seem to be terribly happy. But the raspberries on the other hand are going crazy…although we keep getting hit with that spotted fly that goes after raspberries. I’m trying a spray this year that might help…*fingers crossed*. And yes, these bars are amazing! I love that the base and the crumb topping are the same. Yum!
Man, I wish I had a garden! Have started to daydream about growing my own veggies and herbs. Guess I have to move out of the city if I ever wanna get started 🙂
That’s exactly what led to our garden, Fernando! We used to just keep herbs and stuff in the windowsill, but we’d always talk about what we wanted to plant when we had room. Well, we moved into the house and had room…so we made it happen! Do you have any outdoor area of your own in the city? (Like a patio or porch?) I’ve seen some pretty incredible ideas for vertical gardens…just a thought!
So jealous of your garden! I have trouble with just an herb garden :/ But I think maybe (just maybe) I could master these bars – they look so perfect!
Hahaha…you could most definitely master these bars, Megan! I bet you could also master eating them. (Hint: It’s not hard!) But give gardening another go…I learned from making mistakes (lots), but now it’s pretty fun. I’ve also learned that some things are just not worth growing b/c they’re too hard. Give tomatoes a shot…they’re a pretty darned easy way to start!
These blueberry crumb bars look amazing, David! I’m envious of your garden. We’re only growing strawberries and tomatoes along with a few fresh herbs at the moment and we’ve had a good bit of luck with them. There’s something so rewarding about growing your own fruit and veggies.
Wishing I had a plate of these crumb bars right now! Bookmarked the recipe so I can make it soon! 🙂
Hey, strawberries, tomatoes and herbs is still a legitimate garden, Jess! Add some bell peppers and zucchini in there and you’ve got something pretty close to what we have. These crumb bars are crazy easy to make…and crazy easy to eat, too. Enjoy! 🙂
These bars look delicious! I may have to give them a try with another berry, though, since for some reason, blueberry prices around here have been sky-high (I am NOT paying $6 for 6 oz. of blueberries!). My boyfriend, who has much more of a green thumb than I do, planted a garden both this year and last; tomatoes, peppers, and herbs are always our favorites.
Holy cow…$6 for 6 ounces!?! Yeah, I wouldn’t do that, either. Although you can use frozen berries for this recipe, too. That might be a little cheaper? And cheers to the garden! It’s so rewarding growing your own veggies and herbs. Plus, it’s so much cheaper to just step out and snip a couple sprigs of whatever herb I happen to need. The winter is so much more annoying when it comes to fresh herbs!
Sounds like you have quite the garden, David! Hubby and I are getting more and more into it, but are garden is just a little one. I love having fresh herbs…they’re my favourite. We also grow some onions, strawberries and rhubarb. Our apple and pear tree are only small yet, so don’t yield much, but are pretty to look at. These blueberry crumb bars look delicious! Wouldn’t it be awesome one day if you grew enough blueberries to use in your recipe?!
Yeah, we love the garden around here! I’ve always had this fascination with trying to make/grow it myself…so that lends well with the garden concept. Of course, we’ve experimented with some things and decided they just aren’t worth the trouble. (Brussels were one of those…) Are apple trees are finally looking legitimate this year….5 years in now. Let’s see if we get more than one apple off of ’em this year though! 🙂
Oh dear wow! These bars look FANTASTIC David! Blueberry bars are a favorite of mine – they are those bars that I would hide from Lil Shashi, only she’d sniff them out and finish ’em before I got home – clearly being an only child means she has issues with sharing – which means Robbie CANNOT be an only child – he will eat ALL your blueberry crumb bars – and if he doesn’t, my drone will! 🙂
Yes, I do have a garden and bell peppers, tomatoes, & jalapenos are staples in my garden too, this year I have some habaneros and some funky purple bell peppers and am hoping that grape vine actually have edible grapes this year.
BTW, David – this is a fantastic post – thanks for giving me the secret to getting my hands on these bars (without my undependable drone) – am going to apply at Robbie’s daycare NOW!
You’d hide food from lil Shashi? No! You wouldn’t dare keep something delicious away from her…that would be downright rude. (It’s ok…I understand!) So I’m thinking Robbie and the drone can be siblings because I’m not sure we can fathom the thought of another one right now! But one more would mean I’d have help eating all of the desserts in this house…haha! I’ve seen those funky purple bell peppers before, and I almost tried planting some this year. Let me know how they turn out. And grapes! I’ve always wanted to try my hand at growing grapes. Our neighbors have the most amazing grape vines that drape over their back deck. The grapes aren’t the best, but it’s sure fun to see ’em hanging there over your head! P.S. If you pop up at Robbie’s daycare, I wouldn’t mind one bit. I’d be pretty shocked, but I wouldn’t mind! 🙂
Hi David! I’ve been on a blueberry kick lately. I’ve made Nagi’s blueberry quick bread twice in two weeks! These are up next!! As you know we have a big garden and I honestly don’t have a favorite thing that we grow, I like them all! I am partial to my herb garden by the back steps, I love going out and getting fresh herbs to cook with. I agree with you that home grown lettuce tastes way better than store bought! We planted Romaine this year (among others) and it is really good in salads and BLTs!
I love a good blueberry bread, Dorothy! And banana bread. In fact, I once combined the two into a blueberry banana bread…and it was pretty darned awesome! I’m with ya on the herbs. I love stepping out and just picking the herbs I need for a recipe. It also makes cooking with fresh herbs in the winter super difficult…or super expensive! Either way, cheers to gardening and fresh summer fruits + veggies!
Hi David! I’ve had good luck with drying herbs. I also froze fresh parsley and rosemary in zip bags which worked well. I just snip off what I need and seal the bag up again. The price of fresh herbs even in the summer is high here!
Ah! Good thinking…I’ve dried herbs before (you can do it in the microwave!) but I always forget to do that before winter. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
WOW! I am in love with the crumb topping. They look gorgeous. Want to try this out soon.
Thank you so much, Kushi…and what makes this even better is that the crumb topping is the same as the base. Nice and easy! 🙂
David! These crumb bars look amazing, I would love to have a garden filled with fruits and veggies, I do not know where to start, and the only plants that have survived living with me are cactus…:-)
Haha…I love that the only plants you have are cactus, Gaila! Give herbs a shot…or tomatoes. Both are pretty easy and like hot weather. Just keep the soil damp (not dry, not sopping wet) and you’ll be off and running with your garden in no time! Now if we could only invent a plant that grew blueberry crumb bars…
I wish I could do some gardening. We planted some stuff and it all got spoilt 🙁 love these bars, anything with crumb topping is always a favorite.
Oh no! I’m sad for your garden, Manali. Of course, you guys have had some crazy weather out there this year. Maybe just make a bit batch of blueberry crumb bars and plan out the garden for next year? 🙂
How fun to make bars with berries from your own garden! These look amazing and I love the color. I have 3 raised beds on the side of my house that gets the most sun. I’ve got 9 tomato plants this year of different varieties, beets, onions, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, jalapeno, Serrano, and bell peppers, a bunch of basil, other herbs, and a parsley plant that survived the winter and is now a giant bush! I planted one strawberry plant last year and it has taken over. I had more than I could handle about a month ago and now they’re about to explode again!
Well, to be fair, these berries didn’t come from own garden. Our blueberry bushes are a little stubborn. But come late summer, I could make this again with fresh raspberries…we’ll have buckets full of those! Wow, you have a crazy impressive garden, Rachelle! I know where I’m coming next time I need some veggies. Just don’t mind the random creeper digging around in your garden…hah. And I’m jealous of your strawberries…how do you keep the chipmunks from destroying it??
Yes, we have a little garden (Read: Andrey has it cause gardening isn’t my thing). In my book, it’s being used quite irresponsibly (Read: too many flowers while not enough rhubarb and lavender). But basically, it’s fine. I love crumble pies for being super delicious, juicy, and easy to make like this one (Thumb up to oats!) Also, some nuts or herbs like lemony thyme (Read: lavender) would be a great addition! Nice job, David!
Hey, that’s the best of both worlds right there, Ben! You’ve got Andrey to do the gardening (and flowering) while you whip up tasty recipes inside. Sure, you might need to nudge him in the direction of veggies and fruits that you lilke…but that’s easy enough. Just make something delicious using whatever crop you want him to grow. Then just say, “You want this again? Then grow it for me!” 🙂
This looks amazing! I like to grow things like mint and basil. I haven’t had a ton of success though. I did grow a beautiful mint plant and the night before as planning on picking it, something ate ALL of it. I was discouraged.
Something ate your mint? Say what!?! That’s one of the few things that I don’t have to worry about something mowing down in the middle of the night. What in the world eats mint?? Anyways, try chives, too. They are incredibly easy to grow, come back each year and no critters seem to bother it…unless it’s your crazy critter that eats mint. Haha!
These look outstanding, love a good bar cookie and with crumb topping too. Lots of fresh fruit to choose from out here, but sadly I have no garden. BUT I have two lovely labradoodles. 🙂
Hahaha! I love that comment, Kevin. Maybe try putting a little fence up around the garden? Or so forget it, throw the ball to the pups and just keep getting veggies/herbs at the farmer’s market and store! 🙂
I live gardening and use to have a vegetable patch when I still lived in Cape Town, South Africa. Here in Spain we live in an apartment unfortunately. I would love to be able to grow something again, maybe I’ll try my hand at planting herbs.. 🙂 I’ve made these bars before with preserve but love the idea of making them with fruit that you picked from your garden 🙂 🙂
Hey, I’ve seen some pretty awesome vertical gardens for apartment patios and stuff! You’re usually limited to herbs or maybe a bell pepper. Or what about those hanging tomatoes that grow upside down? Totally an option right? These bars are crazy easy to make…perfect summer dessert right there! 🙂 Thanks, Johlene!!
Dude, these look absolutely AMAZING- The texture, the crumb topping, amazing!
I, unfortunately, have a black thumb (both literally and metaphorically), and probably would kill a fake plant, so no garden here…or ever.
Wait, you literally have a black thumb? You might want to see the doctor about that one. It doesn’t sound healthy. Or maybe eat a lot of blueberry bars and hope your thumb turns blue instead of black…
Ummmm… To your question.. Yes I can call it a garden, because we stay in an Apartment and there you know that it’s hard to find some vacant place where you can put some soil and grow things of your choice. But still my mom-in-law managed to plant a little bit of everything in the garden.
But guess what, we are planning to buy an independent house hoping we would get some space outside to call it a garden. Hoping for the best….BTW the blueberry crumb bars are simply awesome and my stomach is literally growling at these pictures David. Pinning 🙂
I totally had a little small garden growing when I lived in an apartment, too, Puja! I lived on the first floor, and I kinda just took some of the area next to the patio for small stuff like herbs. Start dreaming now about the stuff you’ll plant once you move into a house…that’s what we did! Half the fun is planning. 🙂
I’m so jealous of you. I kill every plant I touch, cacti included, so gardening is not my forte. Which is really sad, because the idea of fresh veggies is just so appealing. Why oh why is it so hard?
Also, you know, the bugs. And the Inspector Gadget arms. All that is rough.
Crumb topping is my favorite thing in the entire universe, so I’m sold!
Hey! I have full faith that you, too, can be a gardener, Mir. Just keep the soil wet. (Stick a finger an inch down into soil…if it’s dry, water it!) Doooo it! 🙂 Also, save me some crumb topping, ok?
I love home gardens, however we can’t grow that many exciting things due to the NJ weather and lack of sun. However, my dad owns an orchard in Spain and he plants all different fruits and vegetables- its some of the best childhood memories I have! Thanks for sharing this recipe and bringing back such good memories 🙂
Wow, your Dad owns an orchard in Spain?? How cool is that!? If he needs help picking fruit, just let me know. I don’t care what he grows…I’ll come pick it! And I’ll bring some blueberry bars, too! 🙂
Handed down recipe’s are best! I love recipes that are in families over generations. My aunt loves to bake and I always get excited to hear stories about my great-grandma baking with my mum and aunt together. I love to garden and I am very lucky to have a good sized garden. My favourite things to grow are trees – I guess it is because they do not need much looking after. We have apple trees, plum trees, a fig tree and even a small nectarine tree (never has fruit though) plus I love my little herb garden. Would love to grow vegetables but we travel too much. Your vegetable garden sounds amazing 😉
I couldn’t agree more, Miriam! I’m lucky…my Mom spent many hours typing up all of her recipes some years ago, so now I have an electronic file with all of my favorites from childhood. I can’t tell you how often I go back digging through that file!
Your fruit tree garden sounds quite amazing, Miriam! Plum and fig? Yeah! And we have a nectarine tree, too, but we’re still waiting on it to fruit. It’s a nice, big, healthy tree…but no fruit yet. Not sure what’s going on there. But it’s still a nice tree in the yard if nothing else! 🙂
Blueberries love sandy soil. They love it when water drains away quickly, and they also love heat – which you get in abundance when direct sun hits sand. That’s why they grow so well in place like the New Jersey Pine Barrens and the West Michigan dunes. I was able to get them to grow in the PA Dutch region by planting them on a high outcropping right next to a pond, where I mixed sand into the soil. They’re one of my favorite foods. I go through an epic yearly blueberry baking season each summer, sourced from a secret patch of wild berries in Northwest Michigan. I’ll be sure to put these crumb bars into my rotation.
Hmmm…our blueberries get hit straight on with sun from about 10:00-3:00, and our soil is pretty sandy. I might need to actually get the soil tested to figure out exactly what’s going on. We’ll get a small handful of blueberries, but that’s about it. Now raspberries? That’s another story…
Your garden sounds amazing!! I bet lettuce picked fresh from your own garden tastes fantastic.
Now these bars? They look fantastic! I am such a big fan of cooking with berries and stone fruits in the summer. To me it’s one of the best times of the year to bake!!
Oh it totally does, Tamara! Lettuce is surprisingly easy to grow, too. One year we planted lettuce from seed and it wasn’t so great. But this year we used starter plants from a local nursery…and we have more lettuce than we know what to do with! It grows crazy fast. So maybe a salad for dinner tonight? Followed by these crumb bars, of course! 🙂
Hi, David!
These crumb bars look amazing and delicious, I would love to have a garden filled with fruits and veggies, and I loved it. thanks for sharing
Thanks so much for stopping by, Roopa! I say figure out how to get a garden going. If you have an outdoor porch, you can at least get some small things going…and it’s fun to watch them grow! 🙂
Hi There!
Has anyone noticed that at the top For the Bluberries that says nothing about sugar, but yet in the directions underneath it says sugar for the blueberries. I am in the middle of making these and I do not know how much sugar to add. I made the crumble. HELP!! LOL
Hey Jacqueline! I am so sorry about that typo in the recipe. I feel terrible as I’m sure your bars are done and cooled by now since it’s been a couple of hours since you left the comment. The sugar for the berries was leftover in my recipe as it can be used when berries aren’t as sweet (for example, strawberries are sometimes a bit tart or blackberries are the same…). The good news is that it’s totally optional to add that sugar to sweeten the berries…it won’t make or break the recipe either way!
Long story short, I hope your bars turned out tasty. They’re a fun summer recipe that can be used with all sorts of berries. (And if the berries are tart, then you can add a bit of sugar to sweeten ’em up.) 🙂 Thanks, and I apologize for the confusion!