blueberries… once again

Who would think that with four people living here, we wouldn’t be able to get rid of a box of blueberries in a week? I used a portion of the 2-pound box (from Costco, of course) for blueberry muffins, and another portion for blueberry pancakes, and was thinking the family would devour the rest. Well, they haven’t, now the sweet little gems are about to go south, so I have to bake again… this finally finished them off!

Black and Blue Crumb Bars

Crust
1 cup flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Black and Blue Filling
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/3 cup blackberry preserves
1 1/2 teaspoons flour
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Crust: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter the bottom of an 8×8-inch baking pan. Whisk flour, oats, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture sticks together in small clumps.

Transfer 1 cup of the mixture to a medium bowl; mix in pecans and reserve for topping.

Press the remaining crumb mixture evenly onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake crust until golden and just firm to touch, about 18 to 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes.

Filling: Mix all ingredients in a medium bowl. Spread evenly over the cooled crust, and sprinkle the reserved pecan-crumb topping over the filling.

Bake bars until filling bubbles and topping is golden brown, about 40 minutes; cool completely in pan on rack. Cut into bars.

Makes 8 to 12 bars (depending on how you cut them)