creamy lemon blueberry streusel bars

You know it’s been a long, dreary winter when you hear someone ask “Did you see the sun come out for a few minutes today?”  Seriously, where are you spring??  I am SO ready for dewy green grass, chirping birds, colorful tulips, and sunshine!

I made these creamy lemon blueberry bars to get me in the mood for spring.  They turned out delicious!  I am not a fan of the traditional lemon bars because they always seem to be too tart, but the creamy filling in these bars was a perfect compromise of sweet and tart.  The creamy lemon combined with the blueberries and the buttery streusel made a delicious spring-like dessert!  After one bite of these I forgot all about the cloudy skies and brown snow outside.

One thing about this recipe I would change is the amount of lemon filling…I think there should be more! The next time I make these I will definitely double the filling, but I am posting the recipe as I made it.


Creamy Lemon Blueberry Streusel Bars
from recipegirl


For the crust:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 large egg, separated


For the filling:
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup freshly squeeze lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon zest
2 1/2 cups blueberries (I used frozen and it worked out great…I just made sure to thaw them a little before hand and rinse them off so they didn’t make the crust soggy)


To make the crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line 9×13 inch baking pan with foil, and spray bottom and sides with cooking spray.
Whisk together the flour, oats, sugar, salt, and baking powder.  Using a pastry cutter or your fingers to blend the butter completely into the flour mixture.  This can also be done using a food processor.  Set aside 2 cups of the crumb mixture, and reserve for the streusel topping.
In the remaining crumbs, blend the egg white (from the separated egg).  Press the mixture into the bottom of the pan for the crust.
Bake the crust 10-12 minutes.


To make the filling:
While the crust is baking, whisk together the condensed milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and egg yolk.  Let the mixture stand for 5 minutes to allow it to thicken.


To finish:
Sprinkle the blueberries over the warm crust.  Drop spoonfuls of the lemon mixture over the blueberries and spread gently with a spatula to even it out.
*I found this difficult since there was so little filling, which is why I would recommend doubling the filling.
Sprinkle the reserved crumble topping over the lemon-blueberry layer.  Bake until the filling is bubbly at the edges, and the topping is brown, about 30 minutes.


Let the bars cool in the pan for about an hour, then lift them from the pan with the foil to transfer them to a wire rack.  Let them cool completely.  Chilling the bars in the refrigerator will make them easier to cut cleanly.


These bars should be stored in the refrigerator.

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