Easy Cherry Blueberry Crumble Bars
With its buttery crust, streusel top, jammy cherry blueberry filling, and sweet vanilla glaze, this easy red, white, and blue dessert is what to bake for Fourth of July weekend!
It’s time for one of the season’s most sacred traditions: overbuying summer fruit! If you aren’t shoving fistfuls of cherries and blueberries straight into your mouth, it might be time to reconsider your priorities.
Speaking of priorities, here is one for your Fourth of July weekend: baking these easy cherry blueberry crumble bars.
It takes quite the dessert for me to want to do anything with perfect summer fruit other than devour it fresh.
Furthermore, I will never ask you to turn on your oven in the summertime unless I am convinced it is absolutely necessary.
I swear by my last bushel of berries—and by the buttery crumbs clinging to my lips—these festive bars are more than worthy!
A great summer dessert should elevate the fruit, making it taste like the best, most concentrated version of itself.
Further, it needs to be a snap to make because, hello, we have patios to be lounging on and do not need to be locked in our kitchens, thank you very much!
If there’s any dessert that understands the assignment, it’s a crumble.
Crumbles (like Strawberry Crumble) are all about the fruit.
They’re one of the easiest desserts you can make.
What crumbles do bring to the table—that buttery, blissful topping—is indisputably delicious.
The only downside of a crumble is that it’s not possible to pick up your serving with your fingers (I mean, you can try, but please do so in an outdoor location where your host won’t need to mop up after you).
And since they’re best enjoyed warm from the oven, traditional crumbles are less portable too.
Enter: crumble BARS.
These bars have the buttery taste of a fruit crumble, packaged in a convenient pick-up-and-pop-in-your-mouth form.
This easy summer recipe uses one dough, and that dough has two jobs.
You press two-thirds of it into the pan for the bottom crust, add your filling, then scatter the remaining dough over the top.
It’s crafty, scrappy, smart, and means less fuss (and fewer dishes) for you.
Since I had an overflow of cherries—and I’m an overachiever who envisions herself canning as a retirement hobby—I made a small batch of homemade cherry jam, which forms the base layer of the bars.
I love being able to control its sweetness (this jam’s not too sweet), plus those pounds of cherries I impulse-bought were not going to eat themselves.
That said, you can certainly swap in store-bought jam, in any complementary flavor.
I’m loving the red of the cherry jam with the blueberries for the Fourth of July, but these bars would be divine with strawberry or raspberry jam, peach, rhubarb, or even blueberry for double the blueberry-bliss.
The glaze is optional—these bars are sweet enough without it—but I couldn’t resist adding it for the touch of white I needed to make these bars a patriotic red, white, and blue.
If a crisp, buttery base, jammy fruit filling, and streusel-like, crumbly top isn’t enough to convince you to try these bars, we can’t be friends please consider this: Ben, who is notoriously one-note about his desserts (he eats overbaked chocolate chip cookies and little else—hence my need for single serving desserts) ate three.
Wishing you a safe, happy Fourth of July weekend! May you have sticky fingers, a full heart, sunny skies, and plenty of SPF.
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Recipe
Easy Cherry Blueberry Bars
The quick stovetop cherry jam I made as a filling for these bars is delicious on its own, so feel free to double it for the benefit of future you. Use half for the bars, then save the rest for smearing onto bread with butter, swirling into yogurt, or adding to a cheeseboard.
If you prefer to swap store-bought jam, you’ll need 2/3 cup (and these bars can be in your oven about 15 minutes from now). Well, what are you waiting for???
You can make these bars with sweet or sour cherries (or a mix). If using sour, add 2 tablespoons additional granulated sugar. To use frozen cherries, thaw them first so you can chop them up.
Tools
Cherry pitter. This thing earns its place in my drawer every summer. You can use it to pit olives too!
Parchment paper sheets. Don’t you hate it when your parchment curls up? These handy precut sheets are the answer!
Instant-read thermometer. This is the best, easiest way to know your jam is properly set.
Ingredients
For the Cherry Jam Filling (or swap 2/3 cup store-bought jam)
1 pound (450g) fresh cherries*, about 3 cups; pitted and roughly chopped
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
1 ½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon almond extract, or 1 teaspoon cherry, raspberry, or black currant liqueur (I used Cassis)
For the Bars
10 tablespoons (142g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup (60g) sour cream, or full fat Greek yogurt (do not use low fat)
2/3 cup (134g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup (100g) blueberries, fresh or frozen (no need to thaw)
For the Drizzle
1/2 cup (60g) powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk