Let me introduce you to my new current favourite portable dessert – Lemon Blueberry Bars. A dense blondie base, plump fresh blueberries, the zing of lemon, crunchy streusel topping and a 2 ingredient lemon glaze, they’re all I want right now.
You’ll love these Strawberry Lemon Blondies too.
Chewy, soft, crunchy, tangy, fresh and vibrant these streusel topped blueberry blondies are like blueberry pie in bar form.
These bars are a combination of a few of my favourites – this Blueberry Cake and my Raspberry Chocolate Chip Blondies. I added almond flour for texture and flavour, removed the chocolate chips and loaded these up with fresh, plump blueberries. Then I went and added a streusel, similar to my Coffee Cake Muffins on top.
Here’s why you’ll love these lemon blueberry bars
- Quick and easy – everything is baked together in the same pan
- Crumbly on top, dense and chewy in the centre
- Brimming with pockets of plump, juicy blueberries.
- Rich, buttery and zingy with lemon
- Easy to slice, they’re portable and can even be frozen.
Ingredients for lemon blueberry bars
- Flour and almond flour: Both make the base of these bars with the almond flour adding extra texture and moisture.
- Sugar: white and brown. The brown sugar adds extra flavour and moisture along with a little of the chewy texture.
- Baking powder: Just a touch of baking powder adds a little lift to give this a lovely texture.
- Salt: To balance the sweetness.
- Eggs: Two eggs are what bind this all together.
- Butter: melted for the blondie base to make it easy to mix together and softened butter is used to combine the crumb topping
- White chocolate: This is added purely to help to achieve that fudgy texture. You can’t taste the white chocolate so, if you aren’t a fan, don’t be concerned. See Tips and Variations below for a substitute.
- Blueberries: One of the main two stars in this recipe, I prefer to use fresh blueberries but frozen will work too. If using frozen, don’t thaw them first. Mix them into the batter still frozen. You can read more about baking with frozen fruit here.
- Lemon: The other star player in these amazing bars. Both juice and zest are used in the blondie batter and the lemon icing.
The blueberry blondie batter
- All mixed in one bowl, start by whisking together the dry ingredients.
- Add the wet ingredients to a well in the centre then gently stir it all together with a spatula.
- Add half the blueberries and fold them through.
- Tip the batter into an 8 inch square tin and spread it out, adding a few more blueberries to the top.
The easy crumble topping
If you’ve scraped out the batter bowl well (a silicone spatula is great for this), you can actually use the same bowl to make the crumble topping.
Just add 3 ingredients to the bowl and use clean fingers or a pastry cutter to blend them together into a crumbly mixture. The mixture is scattered over the top with a few more blueberries for good measure then the whole lot gets baked.
Tips and variations
Recipes like this are extremely versatile and I’ve used adaptations of this one for many recipes.
- Chocolate Chips: White chocolate chips work beautifully in this recipe. They’re great with blueberries as you can see in these blueberry cookies and the creamy flavour works well with lemon too.
- Swap the lemon for orange: Another great flavour with blueberries is orange – you can see that combo in these blueberry orange muffins. Swap all the lemon juice and zest for equal quantities of orange juice and zest.
- Leave the icing off: These bars are also delicious without the icing, however, if you’re going to skip it, it would be worthwhile adding some extra zest either into the blondie base or the streusel topping.
- Berries: Skip the blueberries and use any other berry you like. Blackberry and raspberry are two of my favourites to use with lemon. See these Lemon Raspberry Mini Bundt Cakes.
- White chocolate: The white chocolate in the mix is more to add texture to these bars than anything and you can’t taste it but, if you don’t have any or would prefer not to use it, swap it for ¼ cup of yoghurt.
Storing and serving these bars
- Fridge: Since they have fresh blueberries in them, store these in the fridge for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
- Freezer: These bars can be frozen for 2-3 months. Thaw them in the fridge overnight or right on the kitchen worktop for an hour.
- Reheat: These blueberry bars are lovely served cold, at room temp or even warmed up with a little cream served on the side as a full dessert.
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Lemon and blueberries truly go so well together, so if you love both, like I do I promise you’ll love these indulgent little Lemon Blueberry Bars.
More amazing bars recipes you love
Bars are portable and, more often than not, easy to make. I’ve added links to some of my favourites below.
Lemon Blueberry Bars
Ingredients
FOR THE BASE
- 1 cup plain (all-purp) flour (130g / 4.6oz)
- ½ cup almond flour (60g)
- ½ cup granulated white sugar (100g / 3.5oz)
- ½ cup light brown sugar, packed (100g / 3.5oz)
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 113 g unsalted butter, melted (1/2 cup / 1 stick)
- 50 g white chocolate, melted (1.8oz)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice (notes)
- 2 teaspoons (not packed) lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup fresh blueberries (150g / 5.3oz)
FOR THE STREUSEL
- 57 g unsalted butter (notes) (2oz / 1/4 cup / 4 tablespoons)
- 4 tablespoons white granulated sugar (notes)
- 65 g plain (all-purp) flour (2.3oz / 1/2 cup)
FOR THE LEMON ICING
- ½ cup icing (powdered) sugar
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Instructions
FOR THE BLUEBERRY BLONDIES
- Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F / 160C fan forced. Line an 8x8 inch square baking tin with baking paper
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, almond flour, both sugars, baking powder and salt and whisk together until there are no lumps left. Make a well in the centre.
- Add the eggs, melted butter, melted white chocolate, lemon juice, zest and vanilla and mix with a spatula to combine.
- Add half of the blueberries and gentle fold only 2-3 times.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and level out with your spatula.
- Scatter most of the remaining blueberries over the top, reserving just a few for the very end. Gently push some of the blueberries down a little. Set aside.
FOR THE STREUSEL
- Place all streusel ingredients into a bowl (you can use the same one if you've scraped it out well) and use your fingertips to press it all together until it look like bread crumbs and clumps when you squeeze it together.
- Scatter over the top of the batter. Don't press it down. Scatter the final blueberries on top.
- Bake for 45-50 minutes until the edges are turning golden and there is no wobble in he centre.
- Cool in the tin for at least 45 minutes before removing and cutting into 16 pieces. The longer it cools the easier it will be to cut.
FOR THE LEMON ICING
- Combine the icing sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and mix together to a smooth icing.
- Drizzle over the cooled bars.
Notes
- I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (4 teaspoons worldwide)
- For best results you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
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20 Comments on “Lemon Blueberry Bars”
How long will these keep for? Thanks
As they have fruit in them, I tend to keep them only for about 4 days in the fridge but you could also freeze them for up to 2 months.
So easy to follow, turned out so tasty, moist actually just delicious.
So, so happy you love them Kay
Really delicious recipe and had lots of compliments when I served it at a tea party. Thank you for a lovely recipe 🙂
So happy you all enjoyed them Sophie
Love these, they’re so refreshing and you really can’t beat the lemon/blueberry flavor combo!
Thanks Trang, so happy you love them 🙂
These look amazing – perfect right now when blueberries are so sweet and delicious! Marie, I always get to your blog to read and comment then I get mesmerised by your videos. I binge watch them! They are so good! xx
Thank you so much for your support Marcellina 🙂
If I plan on making these the night before I am going to serve them, what’s the best way to store them?
Eric, as long as you’re not in a very hot place, these will store just fine in an airtight container in a cool place. For longer than overnight, I’d recommend storing them in the fridge, then bringing them to room temperature before serving. Enjoy 🙂
One of my go-to family favourite desserts to make is a lemon blueberry loaf cake! I just love lemon and blueberry together. These look so decadent especially with frangipane filling.
Oh wow! That sounds really lovely, Marie. I’m guessing its this loaf cake?. I’m so making that :). These bars are decadent because they’re so moist but so lovely. Thanks for dropping by.
Oh My Goodness! These are delicious! My office mates devoured them. So glad I left a few home 🙂
Oh, thank you so much Anna. I really love to hear that 🙂 Yes, very important to keep a stash for yourself.
So good to be back to your place 🙂 I am so glad to see you doing such a great work ! Thank you dear Marie !
oh, thank you so much 🙂
These bars look amazing! I just love lemon and blueberry together and can just imagine how wonderful frangipane added can be! That moist texture looks amazing!
Yes Stacey, they are lovely and moist. Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂