Fruit Bars

Using a basic crumble type pastry these are delicious and so easy.  You can adapt them with most any berry if you want to change it up as the berries begin to ripen in your area.    What a great treat to take on a picnic, serve for brunch, tailgate party, dessert.........

Fruit Bars

1 C sugar

1 tsp baking powder

3 c flour

1 cup butter

1 egg--beaten

zest & juice of 1 lemon

2 c blueberries

1/4 c sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350° butter 9 x 13 pan  (you can double this and make it in a rimmed cookie sheet if you want to feed a crowd)

With pastry blender in large bowl mix sugar, baking powder, flour, lemon zest, butter (I use cold butter and grate it with a box grater for quicker blending), egg....mix till crumble looking texture forms.

Press 1/2 of mixture into 9 x 13 pan reserve the rest for the topping.

Mix berries with lemon juice, 1/4 c sugar and cornstarch and distribute evenly into pan.  Top with rest of crumble mixture and bake on middle rack about 50-55 min or till topping begins to brown.

Let cool completely then add:

juice & zest of 1 lemon mixed with 1 c confectioner sugar add a bit of water for desired consistency then drizzle over cooled bars, let set then cut into equal sized squares.

Great served for brunch or  with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

alternate berry ideas:

raspberry & almond
raspberry & white chocolate chips
strawberry & orange in place of lemon
blackberry & orange in place of lemon
apples with the orange in place of lemon

also cinnamon is a nice addition

Any other suggestions for fruit combinations I should try?

Mix blueberries with cornstarch, 1/4 c sugar & lemon juice.

use pastry blender to mix crumble mixture

press into pan

layer blueberries then top with rest of crumble

bake till golden brown

YUM!