{"id":4576,"date":"2011-08-02T19:43:45","date_gmt":"2011-08-02T23:43:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heidiannie.com\/2011\/08\/blueberry-and-almond-crumb-bars-recipe-with-a-lemon-zest\/"},"modified":"2011-08-02T19:43:45","modified_gmt":"2011-08-02T23:43:45","slug":"blueberry-and-almond-crumb-bars-recipe-with-a-lemon-zest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/?p=4576","title":{"rendered":"Blueberry and Almond crumb bars-recipe with a lemon zest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"027\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last Friday, our downstairs upright freezer decided to defrost itself.<\/p>\n

We have had a long hot BUSY summer.<\/p>\n

And we have neglected to do some things- so the ice in the freezer was<\/p>\n

becoming like a living monster-growing and Growing and GROWING!<\/p>\n

Until it pushed the door open of it own volition.<\/p>\n

Sometime in the wee hours of Friday morning it started to defrost the <\/p>\n

freezer, so by the time we got there it was well on its way!<\/p>\n

Thankfully- the meat was still rock hard frozen.<\/p>\n

The ice cream was a loss.<\/p>\n

The bread we could use for toast that morning.<\/p>\n

But the bags of blueberries were totally defrosted and I had to <\/p>\n

find something to make with them fast.<\/p>\n

The good news here is that Frank loves desserts.<\/p>\n

He thinks every meal should end in dessert.<\/p>\n

But he\u2019s not that fond of fruit pies.<\/p>\n

So- I decided to make blueberry bars.<\/p>\n

Of course, I started making them without looking for a recipe.<\/p>\n

Because I\u2019m that stupid, really.<\/p>\n

So I put them into a pan with a cup of sugar, the juice of a lemon,<\/p>\n

and  teaspoons of cornstarch and started to cook them down.<\/p>\n

Then I started making a crust and after I had mixed up sugar (1 cup)<\/p>\n

and flour (3 cups) and a pinch of salt, I grated a cup of butter into a <\/p>\n

measuring cup and thought- I should go see how much baking powder<\/p>\n

 <\/em>I should add- and I went to look up a recipe.<\/p>\n

The recipe said 1 teaspoon of powder would be sufficient.<\/p>\n

But it was really different for the blueberry addition.<\/p>\n

It said to use fresh blueberries and mix them with sugar and cornstarch<\/p>\n

and lemon juice and then just spread it over the bottom layer of crust.<\/p>\n

RATS!  I had already been cooking my thawed berries for about 20 minutes,<\/p>\n

and they were bubbly and fragrant and done.  There would be no going back.<\/p>\n

So- I adapted my recipe, and added some almonds and lemon zest to the top<\/p>\n

layer and baked them up.<\/p>\n

\"016\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Recipe ingredients:<\/p>\n

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1\/4 teaspoon salt<\/p>\n

1\/2 cup slivered almonds
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups  blueberries ( frozen or fresh)
1\/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch<\/p>\n

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9\u00d713 inch pan.<\/p>\n

2. Put frozen\/thawed berries in pan \u2013 add 1 cup sugar and lemon juice and <\/p>\n

cornstarch and cook until bubbly and thick.<\/p>\n

(2. Alternative:\"015\"<\/a><\/p>\n

mix blue berries, 1\/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in bowl- set aside.)<\/p>\n

3. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Grate butter into mixture-<\/p>\n

and mix together until it resembles oatmeal in texture.<\/p>\n

\"017\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4.  Add egg and lemon zest- and mix together with hands.  Dough will be very<\/p>\n

crumbly.\"018\"<\/a><\/p>\n

  Now put half of mixture into bottom of 9×13 pan and<\/p>\n

press down.  Spoon blueberry mixture over the entire pan.<\/p>\n

\"019\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Add almonds  to mixture in bowl and stir.  Sprinkle over top<\/p>\n

of blueberries and bake for 45 minutes to an hour (keeping an eye on<\/p>\n

it- you want the top to be beautifully browned.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"024\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"029\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cut into bars when completely cool and separate carefully.<\/p>\n

I wrapped mine up in wax paper and plastic for lunches.<\/p>\n

I ate one first and decided to freeze the rest- these can be<\/p>\n

easily eat by the handful!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Friday, our downstairs upright freezer decided to defrost itself. We have had a long hot BUSY summer. And we have neglected to do some things- so the ice in the freezer was becoming like a living monster-growing and Growing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-folksy","category-recipes","category-stepsonthejourney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heidiannie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}