The house next door to us is for sale and in the backyard of the house is a whole lot of blackberry bushes. The mr and I have been hopping the fence over there like ninjas and filling large bowls of berries and sneaking back home to eat our weight in those blackberries. (Ok, not entirely true. We are not good enough ninjas to jump the fence so we have been walking through the fence gate. Plus we checked with the current owner, she told us to pick all we wanted to. We are not asshole ninjas stealing fruit)
So many berries. I check every few days and they just keep on coming and I am not one to let perfectly good berries (or any food) go to waste, so I just keep picking. I froze some , ate so so many, and then I was going to make a straight up pie but decided to do pie bars instead because one, I couldn't find my pie plate (I think Shannon has it) and two, these are just a bit less formal, like pie can sometime be. Plus easier to share because they are cut into little squares and hold there shape really well. And lets be honest, I didn't want to have to roll out pie dough if I didn't have to.
Such a good way to use up and share an excess of berries. Now off you go to make some pie crumble bars while I go play with the kittens (I'll tell you all about the kittens tomorrow....)
The stuff. Flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. A little soy milk and coconut oil, a lemon, and arrowroot powder. And of course lots of blackberries.
The flour, salt, baking soda, and sugar get mixed in a big bowl then the coconut oil get mixed in into a crumble. Now in goes the soy milk to get it all a little wet.
A little more then half the mixture gets patted down into a greases and lined pan
Berries, sugar, arrowroot powder, lemon juice and lemon zest go into a bowl. Give it a mix.
Dump and distribute all over recently patted down dough..
And crumble the rest of the crumble all over the top.
Now into the oven it go.
All cooked and cooling while you put away the clean dishes (or anything that will distract you for at least a half hour while they cool.)
And when they have cooled enough to cut, it's time for you to eat.
And yes, these are totally perfect for dessert and breakfast.
-C
Blackberry Pie Crumble Squares
makes 16 squares
For the crust
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup coconut oil melted then cooled to soft
- 2/3 cup cane sugar
- 4 tablespoons soy milk
For the berry filling
- 3 cups fresh blackberries
- 3 tablespoons arrowroot powder
- 1/3 cup cane sugar
- zest and juice of a lemon
Preheat oven to 375
Mix the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. Add in coconut oil and incorporate with a fork or pastry cutter until the dough looks crumbly, add in soy milk and mix in with for again just til until incorporated. (think pie dough-like) Don't worry if some of the dough seems dry, it's fine.
Grease and line a 9x9 pan. Dump a little more then half of the dough mixture in and pat down to cover bottom of pan. Try to make sure it's all an even thickness.
In a separate bowl, toss together the berries, sugar, arrowroot powder, lemon zest and juice of that lemon. Dump the mixture into pan and evenly distribute over dough. Take the remaining dough and crumble all over the top then just stick it into the hot oven.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until the crumble on top is a nice golden brown.
Remove and let cool completely before cutting.
Cut then eat.
Store squares in fridge, some even say they taste better cold.