MOLINE, Ill. — For this week's edition of Budget Bites, News 8's Linda Swinford joins Good Morning Quad Cities' David Bohlman and Andrew Stutzke to make an easy, breezy summer favorite. The team added strawberries to the recipe for an Independence Day celebration.
The bars take 10 minutes of prep before baking. Here's what you need to make them:
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup old-fashioned whole-rolled oats (do not use quick cook or instant)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- Pinch of salt, optional and to taste
- 12 ounces (2 cups) blueberries (fresh or frozen; unthawed is fine)
(In our GMQC recipe, we split the fruit, adding 1 cup of blueberries, 1 cup of cut strawberries) - 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch pan with aluminum foil (recommended for cleanup) and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.
Make the crust and crumble topping:
- In a large, microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter for about 1 minute on high power.
- Add the flour, oats, sugars and optional salt, and stir to combine. Mixture will be dry and sandy with some larger, well-formed crumble pieces.
- Set 1 heaping cup mixture aside to be sprinkled on later as crumble topping.
- Transfer remaining mixture to prepared pan, and using a spatula or your fingers, hard-pack the mixture to create an even, smooth, flat crust. Set aside.
Make the blueberry layer:
- In a large mixing bowl (same one used for crust and crumble is okay), add all ingredients and toss to combine. (If sugar hasn’t dissolved fully, that’s fine because it liquifies while baking.)
- Evenly distribute blueberry mixture over the crust.
- Evenly sprinkle with the reserved heaping 1 cup crumble topping mixture. Before sprinkling, squeeze the mixture in palm to encourage bigger crumble pieces to form.
Bake the bars:
- Bake for about 55 minutes, or until edges are set and center has just set. Crumble topping should appear set and very pale golden. (Original poster used frozen berries without thawing and the pan was very cold going into the oven. If using fresh berries, baking time will be reduced, at least 10-15 minutes, possibly less. Bars may take longer than 55 minutes if blueberries are very juicy. Watch your bars, not the clock, when evaluating doneness.)
- Place pan on a wire rack and allow bars to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. If you try to slice bars before they’ve cooled completely, they’ll be extremely messy and could fall apart. Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, in the fridge for up to 10 days, or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Nutrition information (per serving, using blueberries):
- Calories: 414
- Total Fat: 12g
- Saturated Fat: 7g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Unsaturated Fat: 4g
- Cholesterol: 31mg
- Sodium: 22mg
- Carbohydrates: 62g
- Fiber: 2g
- Sugar: 33g
- Protein: 4g
Recipe adapted from averiecooks.com, which you can find here.