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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.
I followed the recipe exactly, and the bars were pretty and delicious, with just the right amount of crumbleyness.
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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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.
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.
Berry crumbles are just so SUMMER, aren’t they? I made one this week too. YUM!
I thought about baking a blueberry streusel cake today, but bought one from the store instead!
We had no A/C at home or at school while growing up, but somehow it didn’t bother me as much back then! I do keep my eye out for gluten-free recipes now, but my daughters live out of state now, so it’ll only be for when they visit.
Yes, I do love them. Mostly for the streusel topping, I’m afraid, and for the vanilla ice cream on top of a warm crumble!
I agree that bar cookies can’t be beat — and those are so pretty!
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 🙂
By the time I remembered to take a photo of the bars after they were cut, there weren’t many left!
The raspberries growing in the yard don’t last long, but they’re delicious while they do!
Your crumble bars look so good! I think I need to pick up a copy of KAF.
There’s more than one KAF cookbook and I might get another one eventually. I do love the KAF Cookie Companion!
I don’t bake much in the summer either but those bars sure do look good.
They WERE good!Thanks!
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. 🙁
Any pictures of the pie? I don’t think we did anything much with the raspberries originally, but they have spread over the years!
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. 😉
The King Arthur Cookie Companion isn’t great for photos, I guess. It has a beautiful 24-page color photo spread in the middle of the book that shows maybe 40-45 varieties of the cookies. I don’t pay much attention to photos in cookbooks, actually. Most of the ones I use most have few to none, I’ve realized since I started blogging about my favorite cookbooks. I cranked up the A/C and baked brownies last night from the KAF Cookie Companion recipe, which is my new favorite brownie recipe (adding a little KAF Espresso Powder to deepen the chocolate flavor) to bring to an event today, but we’re in for another week of 90+ heat and humidity coming up!