Fourth of July Announcement & Recipe for Blueberry Crumb Bars

Hi everyone! It’s Brandy of Nutmeg Nanny. Can you believe that it’s almost July! I guess this means that summer is in full swing. Faith and I are super excited to be hosting another All Through The Year Cheer. Here is the posting schedule that we came up with:

Friday June 11th: Brandy posts announcement & holiday recipe
Friday June 18th: Faith posts holiday recipe
Friday June 25th: Faith posts holiday recipe
Wednesday June 30th: MckLinky opens & Brandy posts holiday recipe
Thursday July 1st: McLinky closes and recipe are due at 9pm EST
Friday July 2nd: Roundup posted and winner is announced

As always, Faith and I will try to post other Fourth of July inspired dishes on our personal blogs. Also remember that you can submit as many recipes as you want that feel inspired by Fourth of July. See here for complete rules on participating. Don’t forget there will be a great prize for the winner 🙂 In fact the winner will even get to pick his or her prize. Scroll down to see what it is is! 😉

Now onto the recipe. Obviously Fourth of July is full of recipes that combine the colors red, white and blue. Even though this dessert only uses blue it’s screams Fourth of July to me. It’s easy, delicious and perfect for all those holiday parties and BBQ’s. I used frozen blueberries (fresh blueberries are still really expensive here in NY) and a delicious organic blueberry preserves for the filling. The crunchy bottom and topping mix well with the delicious berry center. It’s like eating a blueberry pie in bar form…Enjoy!!!

Blueberry Crumb Bars:

Crust:
2 Cups all purpose flour
1 Cup old-fashioned oats
1 Cup golden brown sugar – packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 Cup chilled unsalted butter – cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 Cup sliced almonds

Filling:
3 Cups fresh blueberries or 12 ounce package of frozen blueberries (do no thaw)
1 Cup blueberry preserves (10-11 ounces)
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

For crust:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter bottom of 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan. (I actually lined my pan with foil and then buttered the foil. Then when the bars are cooled you can pull it out and cut without risking the bars sticking in the pan)

Whisk flour, oats, sugar, salt, and cinnamon in large bowl. Add 1 cup butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture sticks together in small clumps.

Transfer 2 cups to medium bowl; mix in almonds and reserve for topping.

Press remaining crumb mixture evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake crust until golden and just firm to touch, about 22 minutes. Cool 10 minutes.

For filling:
Mix all ingredients in medium bowl. Spread evenly over crust in pan, then sprinkle reserved topping over.

Bake bars until filling bubbles thickly at edges and topping is golden brown, about 40 minutes; cool in pan on rack. Cut lengthwise into 4 strips, then cut each strip into 6 pieces, forming 24 bars.

Source: Epicurious

See those three lovely magazines? The winner of this ATTYC will get to pick one of these magazines and get a free one year subscription!  The funny things is that looking at these magazines almost makes me want to order a subscription for myself too…hehehe 🙂

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