How many times have you passed over fresh blackberries in the grocery store because you didn’t know what to do with them? Let me solve that for you! These Blackberry Lime Crumble Bars combine sweet and tart summer flavors in a buttery shortbread crust.
They’re a fabulous and easy dessert bar recipe to make that everyone will love!
Well, we missed picking blueberries again this summer. I seriously don’t know how we’ve managed to do this for the third summer in a row. Somehow, July and early August just sneak by without a spare Saturday to hit up the local blueberry patches.
We did, however, stumble upon a blackberry u-pick field while we were cruising around the north shore of my old stomping grounds early last week. What a day it was!
The night before was filled with a fun family wedding at an aquarium (such a great place!) and we took Monday off to get in some sun and relaxation before heading home. Windows down. Music up.
The humid sea air creating those never-ceasing and uncontrollable ringlets with my not-tightly-enough pony-tailed hair. Long Island’s farm and wine country is SUCH a beautiful area!!
We had an inkling of what vacation feels like and it felt SO good!
We had hoped to pick blueberries but we just missed blueberry picking season. So, we filled up 3 pint baskets with the most gorgeous blackberries instead. No complaints here! Especially considering we got these blackberry lime crumble bars out of the deal.
What are Crumble Bars?
Also known as crumb bars, crumble bars are dessert bars that resemble a larger baked crumble dessert. The top and bottom crusts are made from the same dough. And sandwiched in between is a layer of fruit, jam, or caramel.
They’re incredibly easy to make and they’re even more delicious to eat!
Ingredients
Here’s the basic shopping list for this crumb bar recipe. The ingredients are easy and straightforward but be sure to scroll down to the full ingredient list in the recipe card below.
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- All-purpose flour
- White whole wheat flour
- Table salt
- Limes
- Unsalted butter
- Eggs
- Fresh blackberries
- Cornstarch
How to Make Crumble Bars
Here’s how you’ll make these easy dessert bars!
STEP 1: Preheat the oven to 375° F and grease a square baking pan.
STEP 2: Make the double duty dough by mixing the dry ingredients together with the lime zest. Then cut the butter and beaten egg into the dry ingredients.
STEP 3: Line the bottom of the pan with a heavy half of the dough.
STEP 4: Stir the blackberries, sugar, cornstarch, and lime juice together in a bowl. This will help the blackberries soft and turn jammy when the bars are baked. Dump this over the bottom dough layer.
STEP 5: Crumble the remaining dough over the blackberry mixture. Then pop the pan in the oven for about 50 minutes. Cool the bar slab completely before cutting and serving.
So simple and so easy!!
We absolutely adored these bars with every bit of their zippy, tart lime flavor and sweet crumble crusts. The blackberries mesh so perfectly with lime and we seriously couldn’t keep our hands off of these crumb bars!
More Crumble Bars!
The beauty of a great base recipe is that it makes these bars so versatile too. Don’t like or can’t find blackberries? Try these Strawberry Crumble Bars. Or use peaches, blueberries, or raspberries instead.
Apples work great too and these Caramel Apple Cider Crumble Bars are just fantastic in the fall!
Many fruits will work beautifully here so you can’t possibly choose the wrong one! And if you want to get super indulgent, go for these Caramel Crumble Bars!
Blackberry Lime Crumble Bars
Blackberry Lime Crumble Bars combine sweet and tart summer flavors in a buttery shortbread crust. In a pinch, you could use lemon zest and juice in place of lime. They're a fabulous and easy dessert bar recipe to make that everyone will love!
Ingredients
- ¾ cup granulated sugar, divided into ½ and ¼ cup amounts
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup white whole wheat flour
- ⅛ tsp table salt
- Zest of ½ lime (see Note below)
- 1 stick (8 oz or ¼ cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2 cups fresh blackberries
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- Juice of ½ lime
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375° F. Grease a 8x8-inch pan with butter or cooking spray and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine ½ cup of the sugar with the baking powder and flour. Lightly whisk in the salt and the lemon zest. Cut in the butter and half of the beaten egg with a pastry blender (or two knives or your fingers) until the butter is about pea-sized - the mixture should be crumbly without much loose flour. Spread a little more than half of the dough mixture in an even layer over the bottom of the prepared pan and press down firmly to form the bottom crust.
- In another medium bowl, stir the remaining ¼ cup sugar, cornstarch and lime juice together. Gently mix in the blackberries with a rubber spatula until combined. Spread the berry mixture evenly over the bottom crust. Crumble the remaining dough over the top of the berries.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the top is slightly golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares and serving.
Storage: These bars keep well in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. At room temperature, they will become soggy.
Notes
The original recipe calls for lemon zest and juice but lime seems to be a more natural choice to use with blackberries. If you use other fruits, choose your citrus according to what works best with that fruit.
adapted from these strawberry crumble bars
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Blackberry Lime Crumble Bars
- Prep Time: 15min
- Cook Time: 45-50min
- Yield: 1 dozen bars
Ingredients
¾ cup sugar, divided into ½ and ¼ cups
½ tsp baking powder
¾ cup all-purpose flour
¾ cup white whole wheat flour
1/8 tsp salt
Zest of ½ lime
1 stick (8 oz or ¼ cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 large egg, beaten
2 cups fresh blackberries
2 tsp cornstarch
Juice of ½ lime
Instructions
-
01
Preheat the oven to 375° F. Grease an 8×8-inch pan with butter or cooking spray and set aside.
-
02
In a medium bowl, combine ½ cup of the sugar with the baking powder and flour. Lightly whisk in the salt and the lime zest. Cut in the butter and half of the beaten egg with a pastry blender (or two knives or your fingers) until the butter is about pea-sized – the mixture should be crumbly without much loose flour. Spread a little more than half of the dough mixture in an even layer over the bottom of the prepared pan and press down firmly to form the bottom crust.
-
03
In another medium bowl, stir the remaining ¼ cup sugar, cornstarch and lime juice together. Gently mix in the blackberries with a rubber spatula until combined. Spread the berry mixture evenly over the bottom crust. Crumble the remaining dough over the top of the berries.
-
04
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the top is slightly golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares and serving. These bars keep well refrigerated for 2-3 days.
adapted from these strawberry crumb bars
I love the blackberry lime combination! Yum!
Ohhhh, I am loving the blackberry and lime flavor combo!!!!!!! and anything with a crumb topping is just delightful!
These look great. My MIL gave us some blackberries from her house and they are sitting in my freezer. I just made some muffins with part of them, but I think these will be next. 🙂
Love this flavor combination! I made crumb bars this week too, great minds think alike!;)