Uncle Ken Cooking Challenge: Blueberry Bars 8/52

Hi Friends!

The sun is shining and the snow is rapidly melting, which of course, makes me pine for all things summer--especially blueberries.  My love for blueberries runs deep.  Although blueberries are not yet in season, I am starting to see them at the grocery store (hooray!).  I'm not sure if baking falls under the "cooking challenge" rules, but I went with it, since this is a new recipe and it features my favorite fruit.  These bars are a snap to make, and they are just as yummy as they look.  Enjoy!!

Blueberry Bars

(Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen)

Dough:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

Filling:

4 cups (2 pints) fresh blueberries

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 tsp cornstarch

3 Tbl. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375, and grease a 9x13 glass pan. 

In a medium bowl, gently toss together the fresh blueberries, sugar, lemon juice and cornstarch.

In your electric mixer bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, butter and eggs, and mix until the dough is moist but very crumbly. Divide the dough in half, and press one half into your prepared pan so you have an even layer of crust.

Then spread the blueberry filling mixture over the dough pressed into the pan. Take the rest of the crumbly dough and sprinkle it over the blueberries.

Bake for 35 – 45 minutes, or until the juices are bubbling and the dough has browned a little bit (watch the bars carefully towards the end of the baking time so they don’t brown too much and don’t dry out).

Let cool completely before cutting and eating!

As always, please let me know what you think if you try these out.  

XO,

Vicki