Apricot Blueberry Crumb Bars

It has been quite an adventure moving to Idaho. Moving out of Los Angeles was bittersweet, we miss our friends and family, but we have fallen even more in love with this special place we call home now. Surrounded by blue skies, mountains, and nature has filled each of us with a bit more zen, and we are exploring new places every day.

On Facebook, we found a lovely lady who was selling fruit from her garden, so we drove over and picked up a few pounds of the most glorious little apricots. Her garden was overflowing with bounty, we have our eye on her last cutting of rhubarb in a few weeks and the plums were just starting to come in. Some of the apricots got tucked into a pie, some into a galette, and then these we paired with some blueberries for a bar to die for. We are huge apricot fans, apricot jam is literally our jam, and we love a good crumb bar. These came out just sweet enough from the blueberries, and tart from those tasty apricots. If you can't find any apricots as the season here is almost over, sub in plums, or nectarines!

Apricot Blueberry Crumb Bars
Makes one 9” x 13” Pyrex
 
1-cup brown sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1-cup cold butter, cut into pieces
Zest of a lemon
2 eggs
1-cup blueberries
3-4 cups sliced apricots
1-cup sugar
4 tsp. cornstarch or tapioca flour
Juice of 1 lemon
1 ½ tsp. almond extract
 
Preheat oven to 375
 
Grease a 9 x 13” Pyrex baking dish.
 
In a medium bowl mix flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Then, add in the cold butter and eggs, cutting it in with a pastry cutter or fork.  You can also use your fingers to break up any larger pieces of butter. Once the mixture resembles crumbs, press half into the pan, making sure you have an even base.
 
In another bowl, add sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch and almond extract and mix. Carefully stir in fruit. Let the fruit sit for a few minutes.
 
Spread fruit with juices evenly on top of dough and sprinkle with remaining dough. You want some fruit peeking out.
 
Bake 40-45 minutes until fruit is bubbling and topping is golden brown. Cool before slicing.