Make these Mixed Berry Crumb Bars for your next summer party! Packed with fresh berries, they are the perfect dessert for a backyard BBQ.
Make-ahead
Minimal prep
You’ll Learn: How to get a crisb crumb and juicy filliing
Worth It: Simple method, great results without fussy steps
Bonus: Easy to tailor to common diets
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy summer favorite – I love making fruit desserts in the summer! There is nothing better than this mixed berry crumb bar with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
- Make ahead dessert – These berry crumb bars need to cool completely before serving, so they are great to make ahead of time.
- Great for parties – This dessert is one of my favorites to bring to a party! It’s easy to make with not too much prep time, and it’s always a crowd pleaser.
Serving suggestions
These mixed berry crumb bars is incredible for a summer party. For your entree, you could do something like this cherry tomato pasta, or chicken caesar pasta salad for a light pasta option. Or you could grill up some ginger lime chicken to keep the heat out of the kitchen!
This chopped BLT salad or summer corn salad are great summer side options as well! Serve everything with a batch of these watermelon vodka cocktails.
Ingredients
- Mixed berries – I did chopped strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, but you can use any combination you would like
- Granulated sugar – use white sugar to add sweetness and caramelize the fruit as it bakes
- Lemon zest and juice – the lemon balances out the berries and makes the flavors so much brighter
- Corn starch – the cornstarch helps thicken the juices from the fruit and help the bars stay together when cut
- Vanilla extract – I love the way a bit of vanilla enhances the whole dish
- Flour – I used all purpose flour to create the base of the crumb topping
- Baking powder – the baking powder gives the crust a little bit of a rise
- Salt – the salt deepens all the flavors in the crumb and makes it so much more delicious
- Butter – I used salted butter to create the shortbread crust. If you use cold unsalted butter, adjust the amount of salt you add in
- Egg – the egg will bind your crumb crust together. In this recipe, I used both the egg yolk and egg white
Ingredient Substitutions
The easiest way to mix up this recipe is to use different combinations of berries. Blackberries would be a great additions.
To make your berry crumble bars gluten-free, make sure you use gluten free flour. For a dairy-free vegan version, you could try replacing the egg with flax egg or aquafaba, and the butter can be replaced with coconut oil.
How to make
Step 1: Chop Berries and mix Dry ingredients
Preheat oven to 350F and line 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper – this will make it much easier to lift out the cooked bars and cut them.
Rinse and chop strawberries and add to a medium bowl along with the other berries. Stir in the sugar, lemon zest, a tablespoon lemon juice, 3 teaspoons cornstarch and vanilla extract (Image 1). Set bowl aside.
In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients for the crust and crumb layer so mix flour, sugar, baking powder and quarter teaspoon salt together.
Cut cold butter into cubes and pour into the bowl (Image 2). Use a pastry cutter or fork to mix butter into dry ingredients until you are left with small crumbles of butter.
Step 2: Make the Crumb and Crust
Whisk a large egg, then add the egg and vanilla extract into the bowl (Image 3) and continue mixing until everything is a crumbly texture and all flour is incorporated – you may need top use your hands to get the right consistency (Image 4).
Step 3: Layer and bake
Take half of the crumb mixture and press into the bottom of the prepared pan to make a crust. Pour the berry mixture on top of that (Image 5). Lastly, sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture on top of the berry mixture (Image 6).
Place in the oven and bake at 350F for an estimate total time of 45-50 minutes or until the top layer of crumb is golden brown.
Allow the bars to cool completely before cutting or else they will fall apart.
Storage and reheating
Once the mixed berry crumb bars cool completely on a wire rack, transfer to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Check out these other Fruit Dessert Recipes
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
Email Recipe for Later
Recipe
Mixed Berry Crumb Bars
Ingredients
Berry Layer
- 4 cups mixed berries I did 2 cups chopped strawberries 1 cup blueberries and 1 cup raspberries
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Crust and Crumb
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup salted butter one stick, cold from refrigerator
- 1 egg whisked
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper – this will make it much easier to lift out the cooked bars and cut them.
- Rinse and chop strawberries and add to a mixing bowl along with the other berries. Mix in the sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, cornstarch and vanilla extract. Set bowl aside.
- In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients for the crust and crumb layer so mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together.
- Cut cold butter into cubes and pour into the bowl. Use a pastry cutter or fork to mix butter into dry ingredients until you are left with small crumbles of butter.
- Mix whisked egg and vanilla extract into the bowl and continue mixing until everything is a crumbly texture and all flour is incorporated – you may need top use your hands to get the right consistency.
- Take half of the crumb mixture and press into the bottom of the baking pan to make a crust. Pour the berry mixture on top of that. Lastly, sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture on top of the berry mixture
- Place in the oven and bake at 350F for 45-50 minutes or until the top layer of crumb is golden brown.
- **IMPORTANT – allow the bars to cool completely before cutting or else they will fall apart.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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