Blueberry Bars with graham cracker crust, a perfect combination of blueberry bites packed with flavour and crunch. Perhaps an easier version of blueberry pie?

Recently my husband challenged me to make a pie. As much as I love baking, I must admit, I never made a pie before. Partly because I never liked pies as they are my least favourite dessert.  For someone who never made a pie before, I think I should leave the pie making business for another day (sorry hubby).

For now, since blueberries are in season, I have decided to take advantage and make Blueberry Crumble Bars instead.  I call it my “Bar Pie” 🙂

Ingredients for this recipe:

For Blueberry sauce:

• 4 cups of blueberries
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon of lemon zest
• 2-3 teaspoon of sugar

For Crust:

• 2 1/2 cups of graham cracker
• 1/4 cup of salted butter (melted) pour little at the time, you might not need all the butter

For Crumble:

• 1/2 cup graham cracker
• 3 table spoon of all purpose flour
• 3-4 tablespoon of butter
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar

How to make the blueberry sauce:  

Add blueberries, corn starch, fresh lemon juice, zest, and sugar in a small pot and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once blueberries are soft and saucy take off heat and let it set.

How to make the crust:

Mix melted butter with graham flour and press against the pie pan to make a shell.

How to make the crumble:

Mix butter, graham flour, all purpose flour and brown sugar together.

Once the blueberry sauce is cooler, transfer over the crust and cover with crumble.  Bake the blueberry crumble bar , AKA “my easy pie”,  in 350 degrees celsius oven for 20-30 minutes.

Let it set to cool and enjoy.

These blueberries are from Rai’s Colebrook Farming. I had the pleasure to chat with Mandeep and learned a lot about blueberries. She gave me a crash course on how blueberries are grown, what types, locally grown vs organic, rules and regulations and how to properly freeze blueberries.

I always thought to wash blueberries first and then lay them on baking sheet and freeze.  Mandeep suggested that blueberries freeze much better if they are  not wash. Just store them in ziplock bags and freeze.  They will not stick together during freezing process.  Wash after when you are using them.  I will definitely try her way next time.

If you have any questions, ask Mandeep @rai.colebrookfarming , she is the wealth of knowledge when it comes to blueberries.