Blueberries and raspberries are good friends in this crumb bar.
Raspberries taste like Connecticut to me.
More specifically, my grandparents’ backyard in a tiny town in Connecticut in June. It was the first time I remember eating raspberries – I was nine. The berries were picked from the canes, sun-warmed, sweet, and just tart enough. My siblings and I monitored the raspberry bushes that delineated the edge of the backyard and a woodsy area from which bunnies would emerge in the late afternoons, and we heard a rumor of a bear once. Those few summertime visits – with their endless trips (no matter our age) down the Giant Hill in the 50-year-old Radio Flyer wagon that was my dad’s when he was little, an outing to UConn’s dairy farm and ice cream shop, helping (or I should say “helping”) my grandfather in his large vegetable garden with its oddly dirty dirt, not the sandy stuff I was used to – are encapsulated in those delicate, jewel-hued berries.
So when Publix has raspberries, normally such a extravagance it still seems, on sale for $2.50 a container, a few (or more) go in my basket, and I am transported.
I adapted a smittenkitchen recipe for crumb bars that is so darn wonderful. (What does that lady do that *isn’t* wonderful? Nothing, that’s what!) The crust is like a shortbread – not too sweet, just a bit crumbly, and a lot buttery. While the original recipe calls for a combination of blueberries and lemon (both the zest and juice), I counted on the tartness of the raspberries and omitted the lemon with no regrets. I also added some whole wheat flour for flavor and better health. (Although, c’mon, we’ve got two sticks of butter in this…)
Ingredients
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups fresh blueberries, raspberries, and/or diced strawberries (I used blueberries and raspberries.)
1/2 cup white sugar
4 tsp cornstarch
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375. Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, both flours, and baking powder. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.
3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the berries. Sprinkle the berry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.
a little of each 