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Blueberry Pie Bars have a sweet, shortbread bottom crust, a lemon-flavored, sour cream and blueberry filling, plus crumb topping!
As I’m writing this post and looking at the photos of these luscious Blueberry Pie Bars – I’m practically drooling! Please take my advice and add fresh blueberries to your grocery list, then bake up these Blueberry Pie Bars – as soon as you can!
More so than any other kind of berry, I think blueberries are the quintessential summertime fruit!
These Blueberry Pie Bars are a great way to enjoy summer blueberries when they are at their absolute sweetest – and when prices are low too.
How do I make Blueberry Pie Bars?
You’ll start by making an easy shortbread crust. Combine butter, granulated and brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine
Reserve a cup of the crumb mixture, then pour the rest into a baking dish, pressing down to form a crust.
Next, place some pecans into the bowl of the food processor and process until you have fine crumbs. Add the reserved crumb mixture and some softened cream cheese to the bowl with the nuts, then process again to combine. This will become the topping for your Blueberry Pie Bars.
Then, make a filling of sour cream, eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest and lemon extract, plus vanilla extract, sugar, cinnamon and a little bit of flour and corn starch to thicken. Fold in a generous amount of fresh, cleaned blueberries – then pour the batter over the shortbread crust in the baking dish.
Sprinkle more blueberries on top, then add the cream cheese crumb topping. (It’s fine if the topping is in large clumps – just try to spread it on top as evenly as possible.)
Bake the Blueberry Pie Bars until set – then chill before cutting into squares.
Can I use frozen blueberries?
Yes – blueberries, in general, freeze very well, and you can add them to the batter in this recipe, still frozen. Just be sure to look for the bags of larger, high-bush blueberries in the freezer section.
Here’s a helpful hint…while fresh blueberries are in season locally, and relatively inexpensive at the supermarket, buy some extra and freeze them yourself! Place cleaned, dry blueberries on a baking sheet and freeze then in a single layer. Once frozen, they can be placed in a freezer bag for easier storage.
Then – use those frozen blueberries anytime of the year to make these Blueberry Pie Bars or any other blueberry recipe.
This recipe is gently adapted from Trisha’s Southern Kitchen. We increased the recipe to fit a larger baking dish and added a few new ingredients.
You may enjoy these other blueberry recipes:
- Blueberry Pudding Cake
- Blueberry Peach Cobbler
- The Real Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins Recipe
- Ginger Peach Blueberry Ice Cream
- Blueberry Buckle
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Blueberry Pie Bars
Ingredients
Crust
Nonstick cooking spray
3/4 cup cold butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Topping
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup cream cheese
Filling
3 whole eggs
8 ounces sour cream
Zest of one lemon
3 tablespoons lemon juice (about one lemon)
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
3 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, divided
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and place rack in top third of oven.
Spray an 8X12 or 9X13-inch casserole dish.* Cut a piece of parchment to fit inside so edges hang out as handles and spray the parchment.
Make the crust in a food processor by combining butter, both sugars, flour, cinnamon and salt and pulse to combine.
Reserve one cup and press the rest into the prepared baking dish.
Place the pecans into the processor (no need to clean it out) and process until fine crumbs. Add the reserved cup of crust mixture along with the cream cheese and process until smooth. Set aside as a topping for later.
To make the filling, whisk eggs, sour cream, lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon extract, vanilla extract, sugar, cinnamon, flour and corn starch until smooth.
Fold in 2 cups of blueberries then pour the batter over the prepared crust.
Sprinkle the remaining blueberries over the top then dot the top with the reserved topping, making large and small clumps spread out over the top.
Bake uncovered until the center is set and does not move when the pan is shaken slightly. You could also stick a toothpick in the center to test. It will not come out completely clean but you will see that the custard is set. Put back in oven for an additional ten minutes if needed. (If baking in a 9X13-inch dish, check for done at about the one hour mark, then check every ten minutes.)
Cool and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Loosen the sides with a knife or spatula then use the parchment to lift out and cut into 12 by cutting 4X3.
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Notes
* As shown in our photos, we used an 8×12-inch baking dish. If you use a 9×13-inch, your bars will be slightly flatter.
I am an avid baker but struggled with this recipe. The directions are not detailed enough about blending the ingredients for the crust. Mine was just a loose mess of floury crumbs. I added more butter but that didn’t help much. Eventually I just used it and hoped for the best. Is 300 degrees a typo? The original recipe says 350. Mine didn’t brown at 300 and looked nothing like your picture. The flavor was so-so and I ended up throwing this out instead of serving it for Easter. I think the recipe might need some better instructions or tweaks.
Thank you for your feedback MH – we will retest the recipe to confirm for accuracy.