Blueberry Crumb Bars

It's picnic time finally! Perfect consistent weather, minimal wind, good friends, a few blankets, fresh grass, and a potluck picnic. My good friend Andy and I had a little last minute picnic in our apartment complex park that is newly opened. I have two bags of large blueberries frozen in my refrigerator and I have been really wanting to use them in a dessert. I decided to make a fruit crumble bar and I adapted my recipe from one I found on epicurious.com. This crumble is delicious, fruity, moist and tastes incredible with a little ice cream. This is very easy and good, I am looking forward to making this again and using different fruits. A little tip I learned from this recipe is that these bars are best enjoyed the day they are baked. You can prepare the crust and crumb topping two days before and cover and chill and assemble and bake when ready.

Blueberry Crumb Bars

(Adapted from epicurious.com)

Ingredients:

Crust:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 cup chilled unsalted butter, diced

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Filling:

1 12 ounce package frozen blueberries

1 cup strawberry preserves

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel

Directions:

For crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom of a 13x9x2 inch glass baking dish.

2. In a large bowl whisk the flour, oats, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add in the diced butter and use your fingertips to work the mixture into small clumps.Transfer two cups of the mixture to a smaller bowl and mix in the walnut pieces. Place the remaining mixture evenly on the bottom of the glass dish and bake until golden brown 15-20 minutes.

For filling:

3. Mix all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Spread evenly over the crust then sprinkle the remaining topping over the fruit mixture.

4. Bake the bars until they are thick and bubbly, about 40 minutes.