When Life Gives You Lemons...

you make Blueberry Lemon Zest Crumble Bars!

I've been baking quite regularly recently, I can't say the same for my blog updates - but talking about that won't get us anywhere! Along with my baking/cooking, the big boys I mingle with have been mastering the art of starting a fire (their first attempt created a char crusted stove-top and me dizzily gasping for fresh air away from the kitchen/potential carbon-monoxide suicide scene). To their credit, it only took another get-together for them to put a boy scout to shame - what an accomplishment!

So, to accompany their perfectly charred cuts of meat, I tried out my first-ever Lemon Meringue Pie (www.joyofbaking.com). Two days later, I tested my hand again with a new recipe. Unfortunately, this entry is not about those pillowy pies - I kind of just wanted to prove that I had been practicing and not slacking off.

After work this week I've made Blueberry Crumble Bars with a Lemon Zest Twist and a Mango Olive Oil Cake.

The Blue Berry Crumble Bars were made because, well...we had some frozen blueberries (not ideal, I know), a bag of left-over lemons, some empty-bellied guests coming over - and I needed something fast after work.

I had a request from a dear friend Wei for something healthier - a word of warning - this is defiantly not it. A crumble is basically made of a bit of flour and pea-sized pieces of butter mixed with sugar. That's right - it's simple, crazy tasty, and slightly dangerous. Here's the recipe:

I halved the recipe below because Asians tend to eat desserts like fairies(ugh).

Preheat oven to 190C/375F

Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan

1 c white sugar

1 tspn baking powder

3 c all-purpose flour

1 c unsalted butter

1 egg

1 tspn pure vanilla extract

1/2 tspn kosher salt

zest of two lemons

4 c fresh or frozen blueberries

1/2 c white sugar

3 tspn cornstarch

*As with all crumbles or puff pastries, the butter needs to be really cold. I've watched a French youtube clip about making puff pastry and the poor chef took several hours to fold and refrigerate the dough over and over in order achieve the ideal puff and flakiness. Basically, when the butter in the dough is placed in the oven, the butter releases steam and makes the surrounding dough puff up. I'm not too sure why the butter in crumbles need to be ice cold as well - I mostly just follow instructions!! The best way to do it if you don't have hours to spend tri-folding your dough and refrigerating, you can freeze your butter ahead of time (make sure it's the correct amount for your recipe first) and then use a cheese grater to grate the butter into smaller pieces - this ensures that you can get a good dough mixture without having to use your fingers to break down the butter!

1. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, flour, salt, lemon zest and baking powder.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the egg and vanilla together until combined.
3. Use pastry cutter or your food processor to blend the flour mixture with the butter and egg/vanilla mixture. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan. (If you don't have a pastry cutter or food processor, grate the frozen butter over the flour mixture. Gently cut together with two cold forks. When butter is pretty well coated with the flour, pour over the egg and vanilla mixture - continue to lightly bring together to a loose dough. Press half of dough into the prepared pan as mentioned above)
4. In another bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.