Jammy Apple Blueberry Crumble Bars + Video

Here are a couple tidbits of information:

• Fall commences in less than a week

• Rosh Hashanah commences in two nights

After gathering this news. You may now be able to surmise why I’m posting jammy apple blueberry crumble bars today. Actually. The blueberry part might be throwing you off. Now that I’m trying to support autumn desserts and Rosh Hashanah produce and all.

But. The blueberry component in these rich fruit crumble bars is blueberry jam. There are no actual whole blueberries (neither fresh nor frozen) in these crumble bars. Hence why this recipe is still seasonal for the time we are currently in. And hence why I’ve termed these bars “jammy.”

Another piece of data I’d like to inform you of: I have a video tutorial. For these jammy apple blueberry crumble bars. Press play:

Or, watch it on YouTube.

I’d like to get this out of the way straight off the bat: the crust and crumble for these jammy bars are made from the same mixture. And this mixture is so easy and quick. And it’s dairy-free.

And also. This crust/crumble is rich. And made with solely brown sugar, making it extra tender and moist and flavorful.

Additionally. It’s full of chewy, earthy rolled oats. And a generous amount of ground cinnamon, for those fall flavor profiles.

And oil. Your choice of canola, vegetable, or melted coconut oil.

And salt. To bring out all the flavors.

Half the mixture gets spread into your pan to bake up into a tender, rich, dense, chewy crust (no need to bother par-baking the crust either). And the other half gets sprinkled over the apple blueberry filling and becomes a crispy, clumpy, melt-in-your-mouth crumble.

Okay. The apple blueberry filling.

It’s so simple and brilliant.

First: five tart apples. I don’t even deal with peeling them. I do deal with slicing them though. Into thin wedges, which I then cut in half, yielding thin, unpeeled half wedges.

Second: blueberry jam. Or blueberry preserves.

Third: fresh lemon juice.

Fourth: vanilla extract.

That is all!

The lemon juice adds a nice tart contrast to the sweet fruit and the vanilla extract deepens all the flavors.

The apples get tender and succulent and the blueberry jam gets syrupy and chewy and bubbly. Think of the consistency of something like a can of cranberry filling. That’s the thick texture you can expect from the filling for these crumble bars, but without all the corn syrup and other crap as a trade-off.

Now. You have two serving choices for these apple blueberry crumble bars.

Either you can wait several hours for them to cool off and firm up (this cooling process can be sped up in the fridge) before cutting neat squares to serve.

Or. You can scoop out a serving of this crumble, moments after it’s removed from the oven and it’s still hot and bubbling and tongue-burning-level-high, into a dessert bowl and top it with creamy, cold ice cream and serve it.

Is the latter option messier and more fruit crumble-like than fruit crumble bar-like? Yes. Is it more delicious, imho? Yes.

A rich and tender and flaky and dense and chewy and cinnamony and dairy-free and quick oat crust. A jammy, juicy, succulent, bubbling, syrupy, sweet and tangy apple blueberry filling. A crispy and crumbly and clumpy and melt-in-your-mouth crumble topping.

Jammy apple blueberry crumble bars — meet me in the kitchen every hour on the hour.

Jammy Apple Blueberry Crumble Bars

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Yield: 18-24 squares

Crust and Crumble:
2 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup oil (canola/vegetable/melted coconut)

Fruit Filling:
5 tart apples, sliced into half wedges
1 1/4 cups blueberry jam/preserves
Juice of half a lemon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9x13” baking pan with parchment paper, leaving some excess hanging over the rim for easy removal later.

2. In a large bowl, mix together all crust/crumble ingredients until combined. Press 1/2 the mixture firmly into the bottom of prepared pan.

3. In another large bowl, stir together the fruit filling ingredients until evenly coated. Spread the fruit over the crust, and scatter remaining crumble over the fruit.

4. Bake bars on lower oven rack for 50-60 minutes, until deeply golden brown and fruit juices are bubbling at the edges. Scoop out servings and serve warm (tastes better like this, but it’s messier), or let bars cool and firm up for a couple hours before removing from pan and slicing into squares (can speed up cooling process in the fridge).