blueberry crumb bars

school is making me right pissy. studying is driving me crazy, and just about the only thing that i constantly crave to do is baking. which isn't unusual since it's something i enjoy, but it's a little terrifying how intense the feeling is some times.

here's a simple blueberry crumble i made because i loved how it looked on smittenkitchen. as you all well know, this is my favorite website. i go on there just to be inspired (probably why i get such strong baking cravings as well, come to think of it). blueberries weren't that cheap, but i can live with it. i have to say the bubbling purple of the blueberries peeking through the crumble was really nice.


instead of the 9x13 pan recommended, i halved the recipe and made it in a 7" square cake pan, as you can see. i used the zest of a whole lemon just because i love the smell of it, and added lemon to taste to the blueberries. i have a thing for sour tastes, within reason, of course. i also modified the crumble a little, just for a bit more fragrance, by adding good vanilla extract. by good i mean the recent bottle i got which has got lots of tiny little aromatic seeds in. i feel lots happier using that in my baked goods, especially if you can see it. MIGHT try a plain vanilla pount cake next time, just to set those seeds off prettily.

here's a peek at the inside of the crumble. the layers came out very nice, but this is a picture of the first one i took out though the layers aren't as well-defined in this one. it tastes beautiful, fresh and not too sweet. i include the ingredients i used below to make this pan of crumble. techniques are the same as you would use for any crumble, so im not going into that.

0.5 cup white sugar
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
0.5 cup cold butter
0.5egg (i whisked up one egg in a seperate bowl, and added half to the dry mixture with the butter)
Pinch of salt
Zest of one lemon

2 cups fresh blueberries
0.25 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Juice of half lemon

just as a treat, look at what came in for me through the post today! im waiting to make a cake for my friend's birthday that will leave me with 8 brilliant egg yolks. creme brulee, anyone?