Weekend Cooking: Summer Berry Crumble Bars @KingArthurFlour #weekendcooking

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Weekend Cooking is a weekly feature hosted by Beth Fish Reads linking up food-related posts. Click here to check out Weekend Cooking posts from Beth Fish Reads and other blogs.

cover image of King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

I don’t have a good memory; much of my past is lost to me. But whenever a summer heat wave settles in, I vividly remember the moment when I was picking something up from an acquaintance in the middle of a stifling city heat wave. At the time, we lived in an unairconditioned city row house and drove unairconditioned cars. Parked in the driveway, with the three kids crowded in the sticky backseat, I go up to the door, limp as a wet dishrag, and the other mother opens the door holding a potholder. A blast of cool air hits my face as she hands me what I came for, and says brightly, “I’m baking a blueberry pie!”

The envy I felt at that moment! Not about the pie – I don’t particularly like blueberry pie – but because I wouldn’t have even been able to THINK of baking in that heat wave.

So whenever I turn on the oven in the summertime now (still rarely!) I think of that moment of sharp envy and give our hardworking little window unit a loving pat.

We had fresh raspberries from the garden and had eaten many of them straight already, so I decided to bake something with them to take to a Fourth of July cookout this past week. I checked a few other cookbooks first, not sure what I wanted to make, but for easy baking and eating, you can’t beat bar cookies. When I saw a recipe in The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion for Summer Berry Crumble Bars, I knew that was perfect. I had exactly three cups of berries on hand and that was what the recipe called for.photo of uncut bars

I followed the recipe exactly, and the bars were pretty and delicious, with just the right amount of crumbleyness.closeup photo of bars

The Baking Unlimited blog has posted the recipe for Summer Berry Crumble Bars made with blueberries. I also see there is a similar, gluten-free recipe for Raspberry Almond Bars on the King Arthur Flour blog that I might try if we do a gluten-free cookout this summer.

By the way, if you know anyone in the NYC area with celiac or who follows a gluten-free diet, check out this Celebrate Celiac ticket giveaway for an event on July 13th.

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Beth F
11 years ago

You can’t go wrong with KAF — I love their recipes. Our raspberries are just coming on and I have that cookbook. I’m going to mark the page. And I can SOOOOOO relate to your A/C story. We have only window units and baking can be deadly in the summer.

TracyK
11 years ago

I laughed at your comment that much of your past is lost to you. What I remember is living in Alabama in my childhood with no air conditioning and it was hot and humid at least 5 months in the year, 24 hours a day. And now my mother, who still lives there, says she cannot live without air conditioning! Fortunately I now live in a city where we truly can get by without air conditioning, with discomfort only a few days a year.

I think it is great that you mention gluten-free sources for recipes. I do remember that one of your daughters is sensitive to gluten.

Cecelia
11 years ago

Berry crumbles are just so SUMMER, aren’t they? I made one this week too. YUM!

Joy Weese Moll (@joyweesemoll)

I agree that bar cookies can’t be beat — and those are so pretty!

Charlie
11 years ago

Sounds awesome and looks even better. And yes, very summery, my enthusiasm when I saw this post was, I’d say, more than it might have been in winter. Yay for home-grown berries 🙂

Vasilly
11 years ago

Your crumble bars look so good! I think I need to pick up a copy of KAF.

BermudaOnion
11 years ago

I don’t bake much in the summer either but those bars sure do look good.

Care
11 years ago

Ha, I just made blueberry pie – and yes, it was hot and sticky outside but just fine in. I supposedly have raspberry bushes in my backyard but I’ve never seen fruit. 🙁

Trish
11 years ago

The crumble looks delicious!!! I’ve been curious about this cookbook–are there pictures? (I’m a total cookbook picture snob). And the heatwave. Ugh! Every time I think about complaining about our weather this summer I remind myself that we’ve been so lucky compared to other years. Here I sit on July 14th with no A/C running! Granted yesterday it was 100, so I probably would have left a very different comment yesterday. 😉

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