I’ve been looking for a fun blueberry recipe, something new and different. Of course there’s blueberry muffins, bread, pancakes, pie… But I came across this recipe for lemon blueberry pie bars on Pinterest and I was intrigued. A lemony pie crust with a cream cheese blueberry filling, topped with a lemon crumble. It’s not too sweet and has multiple textures going on.
I doubled the recipe and made it in a 13″x 9″ and the bars were pretty thick, as you can see from the pic.
Lemon Blueberry Pie Bars
Ingredients
FOR THE SHORTBREAD CRUST
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
½ cup granulated sugar (plus more for sprinkling)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
zest of one lemon, divided
2 cups all-purpose flour
FOR THE FILLING
8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1-5.3 ounce container lemon flavored Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
pinch of salt
½ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups fresh blueberries
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line an 8″ x 8″ or 9″ x 9″ baking pan with foil. Leave an overhang on the sides. Set aside.
To make the shortbread crust: stir the melted butter, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and half of the lemon zest together in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir until combined. Reserve ¾ cup of the shortbread crust and place in the refrigerator or freezer until needed. Press remaining crust evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 18 minutes while you prepare the filling.
To make the filling: in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a medium sized bowl with a hand mixer, beat cream cheese on high until smooth. Beat in eggs, scraping down the sides as necessary. Add sugar, lemon flavored Greek yogurt, remaining lemon zest, lemon juice, and salt and mix thoroughly. Add flour and mix again until just combined. Gently fold in blueberries.
Pour filling into crust and add a few blueberries on top of filling. Remove reserved crust from refrigerator and crumble over top of the filling (you may need to separate into crumbs with a knife or fork). Sprinkle with sugar. Bake bars for 60 minutes, or until toothpick placed in center of pan comes out mostly clean. Allow pan to cool at room temperature on a wire rack. When completely cool, chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
When bars are completely chilled, lift out of the pan using foil overhang and cut into squares. Top with lemon zest before serving. Bars can be stored covered in the refrigerator up to 5 days.
Recipe from Fresh April Showers
beansylovescake.wordpress.com 