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Amazingly easy and delicious, these Blueberry Crumble Bars are the perfect amount of buttery crumble and sweet filling and are easily prepared year-round with fresh or frozen blueberries.
Buttery toppings and sweet pie fillings are a favorite dessert here at The Forked Spoon, including Easy Lemon Bars, Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler with Honey Butter Biscuits, and Blackberry and Blueberry Galette with Rosemary.
I keep going back and forth on how to properly start a post for the most amazing Blueberry Crumble Bars you will ever make in your whole life. Do I start with small talk first? Or just start talking about the food?
Since most (translation- all) of you are here for the food, let’s start there.
And with the basics.
Ingredients in these Easy Blueberry Crumb Bars
- Sugar
- Baking powder
- All-purpose flour
- Cold butter
- Eggs
- Lemons- juice, and zest
- BLUEBERRIES
- Cornstarch
Definitely not diet food, but that’s ok. I mean, we’re not here for diet food today.
As far as flour goes, I used all-purpose flour. It’s like the white bread of flours and my personal preference for this particular recipe. That said, I suspect that these blueberry crumble bars would taste fantastic if you mixed the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour or almond flour.
Fresh or Frozen Blueberries?
I have two answers to this question-
- If you want the best, fresh, ripe blueberry flavor, then fresh in-season blueberries are ideal. You can’t gauge taste and ripeness when you purchase frozen blueberries. That said, it’s not always berry season.
- Cost. Big, beautiful, ripe, in-season berries are expensive. So, unless they grow wild in your backyard, making a single sheet of Blueberry Crumble Bars or a couple of blueberry pies is expensive. For me, a person who already spends way too much on groceries, I am willing to compromise a teeny bit of flavor and use frozen berries.
So just in case you didn’t catch that, these Blueberry Crumble Bars shown here are made with frozen blueberries.
Why these Blueberry Crumble Bars are so Fantastic
- They are, quite honestly, the easiest thing you will ever make.
- They are super versatile. Meaning what exactly? If you don’t have blueberries, use what you’ve got on hand or whatever’s in season.
- Blueberry crumb bars are easy to store and transport, which makes them the perfect party or potluck treat!
- There is no need for fancy equipment when making these blueberry pie bars.
- Which reminds me…pie is a thing of the past thanks to these beauties.
If you do plan to share your beautiful blueberry crumb bars with friends and family and you plan to get all prepped and ready ahead of time, I HIGHLY recommend hiding them from everyone in your house. Actually, in the case of these bars, it’s just better to triple the recipe because unless you hate delicious blueberry pie, there is no way you’ll be able to keep these from even yourself.
And I know this because this happened to me.
Usually, it’s the husband’s fault when treats go missing, but in the case of these sweet and buttery bars, well… that was all me.
Equipment needed to make these Easy Blueberry Crumb Bars
Are you ready for this super long list?
- Mixing bowls
- Parchment paper
- A 9×13-inch pan. I used this 9 x 13-inch pan and love love love it. Yes, the glue is a pain in the you-know-what to remove, but it does eventually come off.
If you love these bars, you may also enjoy
Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze
>FIND MORE DESSERT RECIPES HERE<<
Blueberry Crumble Bars Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter, (2 sticks)
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 lemons zested
- 2 lemons juiced
- 5 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
- ½ cup white sugar
- 4 teaspoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and grease a 9x13 inch baking pan (I also lined my pan with parchment paper for easy transfer and cutting).
- In a large bowl, mix together the 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of sugar and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Using a large fork or pastry cutter, blend the butter and egg into the flour (you could also do this is a food processor, but be careful to slowly pulse until just incorporated). The dough will be very crumbly. Transfer half the dough to your prepared pan and pat firmly until crust is uniform.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Mix in the blueberries. Transfer the blueberry mixture over the top of the prepared crust. Finally, crumble remaining dough over the top of the berry layer.
- Bake in preheated oven for approximately 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Remove from the oven and allow bars to cool completely before cutting into squares, or, better yet, store in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving (it makes slicing a breeze and, in my opinion, they are best cold).
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Could I cut the ingredients in half and make it in an 8 x 8 pan?
Yes, that should be fine. Just keep an eye on it when baking 🙂
Do you add a whole egg then?
Delicious! I followed the recipe exactly and used freshly picked blueberries. I’ll make these again for sure.
Thank you for the delicious feedback, Brooke 😀
You’ll use frozen berries because of cost but use only juice from actual lemons ? Seems a bit odd. In instructions put in the amount for everything. Ex. 3 cups of flour and the baking powder. How about 3 cups flour and 1 tsp baking powder. Had to flip back and forth multiple times between ingredient list and instructions to get a quantity, very frustrating
So you’ll do your own baking baking but can’t handle scrolling between instructions and the ingredients? Seems a bit odd. Scrolling is way less effort than actually baking food. Confused as to how that was too much for you to handle.
You clearly didn’t like this recipe otherwise you would not have gone out of your way to come back and complain. But it would be much more helpful if you would tell us what was actually wrong with the results instead of nitpicking the author’s choices and presentation of the recipe nobody forced you to search for and make.
Jen R.
I was surprised by your negative and undiplomatic answer to “George says.” There are much more positive ways to address his concerns. I see complaints and concerns from readers as ways for me to learn more about the recipes I create, it’s presentation and what readers are looking for.
We need to handle negative comments with the same respect as positive comments.
Simple explanations regarding why fresh may be better than not fresh for some ingredients would have been more helpful in order for the reader to understand the whys that we bakers think we already know. We are all continuing to learn…I hope.
Jen I just want to say I think you handled “George says” perfectly. You gave them a taste of their own medicine as well as in a tasteful way explained how they could’ve been more constructive in their criticism in the future. You did a great job. I am fascinated by the people who felt the need to comment to you that you didn’t handle it appropriately. I am pretty sure you are my kind of people sister ! great job on the recipe and great job with handling your business. We have no time for people like that to rain on our parades!
He’s a man,! Lol
Wow, nitpick much? Most recipes don’t give quantities in the directions anyway. As for the blueberries and lemon juice… frozen fruit is often as good or better than fresh; reconstituted lemon juice is NEVER as good as fresh squeezed.
HI,
SO….these are fabulous BUT…you definitely need to thaw, drain and ‘dry’ frozen berries. I did not do this and I ended up with ‘soup’ a la blueberry crumble, LOL. I should have known better. If you think about adding a mixture of sugar, cornstarch and lemon to anything frozen, it just doesn’t work. I cannot wait to try these again, I know they will be marvelous. The topping was slightly browned and the flavor was delicious….just need to thaw and drain those berries beforehand. Thanks for an awesome recipe.
I made these with frozen blueberries and they came out perfectly!! Here is what I did.
Only when I was ready to add the blueberries I took them out of the freezer then and measured them and added to the bowl right then and poured into pan, added topping and put into the oven.
I did not let them sit on the counter measured while I made the recipe otherwise they do thaw and start to get wet. No thawing at all. They came out perfectly.
Need more butter for the crumble topping
Easy to make and tastes wonderful. I only had a bit more than 4 cups of blueberries and it still turned out really good. I’m sure 5cups would have put it over the top 😊
Hi!
If using frozen blueberries should you thaw them first? Thanks!
Hi Kim,
I don’t believe thawing is necessary.
I have all the ingredients except the lemons. Could I use the bottled lemon juice instead? Don’t really want to run into town to buy a couple lemons, unless you highly recommend I should. Lol Thanks!
Hi Sheree, this is a great question. Given that this recipe calls for both lemon juice and lemon zest, I would recommend trying to get your hands on a couple of lemons for best results (the fresh lemon, blueberry, and butter combo is really nice). However, you can always give it a try with bottled lemon juice. It won’t change the overall texture, just the flavor a bit. Hope that helps 🙂
How are these bars best stored???
These turned out AMAZING!!!!!
Hi Bailey,
I am glad you enjoyed them! I generally put it in airtight Tupperware/containers and place them in the refrigerator.
Would I be okay traveling with them – about 8 hours, including air travel?
I’m almost crying at how beautiful these are. Seriously, these bars are prettier than me. And I’m totally okay with that, because they look so stinking delicious. I cannot wait to try these!