Blueberry Raspberry Bars

This is the weather that we have been waiting for all year. It’s the kind we dream about on the day after Christmas, and we know it will be coming around in, oh… about 180 days. We hold on to that thought, and when a day like today happens, we cry and cry. OK, well, maybe I am exaggerating, but I do cry when it snows.

Where was I? Oh yeah…Warm, long days and cool nights. Perfect for long evening walks after supper. Longer days mean longer baking days. It’s my ideal kind of day. When I turn the oven on, Hubs comes into the kitchen and says, “Wow, it’s hot out!” I snap back, “SHHHHHH, you will jinx us all with your complaining about it being hot out!!” I have been praying for this for months!! No complaining!

I get overzealous when I am baking because I have a million ideas. I figure everything is misplaced, so keep going, like a bakery assembly line. But then I realize, who is going to eat all of this? Also, when I am food shopping, I think I went overboard on blueberries and raspberries. How can that be a bad thing, I ask you?

These bars are like a Blueberry- Raspberry – better – than- Pie- Dream. I love Pie, any pie, but especially berry pie. I was raised eating pie as the best dessert you can ever have. These are better than pie because it is half the work of making a pie and all the flavor of summer.

Those edges are crispy, buttery berry, gooeyness that you want to last forever. You can slice them small or bigger, like some people in my family. We won’t mention any names, but they are male.

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RECIPE

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
One egg
1/4 tsp salt
zest from one lemon
Filling
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 cups blueberries/raspberries (whatever proportions you prefer)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
4 tsp cornstarch

Directions
  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and grease a 9×13 inch pan.  . 
  For the crust, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups of flour, and 1 tsp baking powder in a medium bowl.  Mix in salt and lemon zest.  Using a fork, blend in egg and butter.   Press half of the dough into the pan to form the crust.  
  In another bowl, stir together 2/3 cup sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Fold in strawberries and blackberries. Spread the berries over the crust, then add the remaining dough over the top of the berries.
 Bake for 45 minutes until the top is lightly brown.  Cool completely.  Makes up to 24 bars.