Have you ever made a cover recipe? I’ve made enough of them to figure out that cover recipes are usually a pretty good bet! My daughter saw this cover and said she wanted me to make them for July 4th because of the red, “white” and blue colors. So I tried them, and they were GOOD! They will be on her July 4th dessert buffet.
Mix and match the berries to your preference. Basically, you will need 5 cups of berries. Strawberries usually don’t bake up too well as they tend to release too much liquid and also take on a bit of ugly gray tinge, so don’t use too many strawberries, maybe one cup max. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and even pitted and halved/quartered cherries will all work.
There is no need to top these bars with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, but… 🙂
Note that these bars need to rest overnight in the refrigerator before serving, so plan accordingly.
Summer Berry Bars
3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups (267 grams) granulated sugar, divided use
1 tablespoon (3 grams) lime zest (OK to sub lemon or orange zest)
1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking powder
¾ teaspoon (2.25 grams) kosher salt
1 cup (227 grams) cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 large egg (50 grams), lightly beaten
1½ tablespoons (12 grams) cornstarch
2 cups (260 grams) fresh raspberries
1 cup (147 grams) chopped fresh strawberries
1 cup (160 grams) fresh blackberries
1 cup (170 grams) fresh blueberries
3 tablespoons (15 grams) fresh lime juice (OK to sub lemon juice or orange juice)
1 teaspoon (4 grams) vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 13×9-inch baking pan with parchment paper, letting excess extend over sides of pan.
- Stir together flour, 1 cup sugar, zest, baking powder, and salt.
- Using a pastry blender—or a food processor—add butter to flour mixture and process or cut in butter until pea-size pieces remain.
- Stir in egg until blended and mixture is crumbly.
- Reserve 1½ cups dough and refrigerate until needed in step 11.
- Press remaining 3½ cups dough into bottom of prepared pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- In another large bowl, stir together cornstarch and remaining ? cup (67 grams) sugar.
- Gently fold in berries, citrus juice, and vanilla until combined.
- Scatter berry mixture over prepared crust.
- Crumble reserved 1½ cups chilled dough over berries, pressing the dough to form small clumps before scattering over berries.
- Bake until top is golden, about 30 minutes more. Let cool completely. Refrigerate overnight.
- Using excess parchment as handles, remove from pan, and cut into bars.
- Store bars in refrigerator.
So, off to the farmer’s market! Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!