Nothing says summer to me more than baking with blueberries, strawberries, rhubarb, or peaches…any summer fruit! Now that fall is on its way these bars will bring back memories of the delicious fruit you ate all summer. I came across a recipe for blueberry bars but had a lot of peaches on hand, so I decided to make peach strawberry crumb bars. These bars are the perfect dessert to have on hand if you feel like pie but want something simpler to make. The crust and the topping are the same dough, it couldn’t get any easier. Feel free to use any fruit you have on hand, you could even use apples. I made the dough in the stand mixer but you could also do it by hand. These freeze really well. To defrost take them out 2 hours before serving.
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 375. Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray.
In a medium size bowl, or a stand mixer, combine 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, baking powder and salt. Add in butter and egg. If doing this by hand use a pastry cutter or fork so the butter and egg blend in with the dry ingredients well. Pat half of dough down into pan, reserve the remaining dough.
In another bowl combine the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Stir in the cut up fruit. Sprinkle fruit over the crust, sprinkle remaining dough over fruit.
Bake for 45 minutes or until lightly brown on top.
Cool before cutting into squares/bars.
Makes 12 large bars or 24 smaller squares.
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Looking for other desserts to make with fruit? Try these Mini Blueberry Pies, Little Strawberry Cakes, or this Lemon Lime Cream Pie Recipe.
* it is ok if you do not have enough fruit, the bars will still turn out well.
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