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Blueberry Pie Bars
Samantha Seneviratne
2016 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
2,016
About 1 hour 10 minutes, plus chilling
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Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cast-iron skillet or 9-inch square glass baking dish, and set aside.
Prepare the filling: To a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the sliced peaches, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; stir to combine. Cook over medium, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and the salt helps bring out juices from the peaches, 3 to 4 minutes.
In a small bowl, stir together the maple syrup and cornstarch. Add the slurry to the peaches and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute, until the liquid thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and set aside.
Prepare the topping: In a large bowl, mix together the flour, oats, granulated sugar, baking powder and salt. Grate in the frozen butter, and, using your hands, blend the flour and butter until they resemble peas. Using a wooden spoon, stir in ¾ cup buttermilk, little by little, adding more as needed just until combined.
Pour the peach mixture into the prepared pan. Scoop or drop biscuit mixture on top of the peaches, leaving a little space between scoops. Sprinkle turbinado sugar over the biscuit mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees until the top is golden brown and the peaches bubble, about 45 to 50 minutes. Let sit for about 5 to 10 minutes to let the peaches set a little. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream, and throw some mint on top, if you like, for color.
Aside from being the only way you can grate it, frozen butter will make the topping crispier. I make a similar crumble (butter rubbed into flour to pea size, then add sugar) over any fruit really and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes before it goes into a hot oven. Enough cold to freeze the butter but not the fruit. The result is always better than with room temperature butter.
Peel your peaches if you like but it's not necessary. And you may certainly cut back on the granulated sugar in both the filling and topping. Chopped pecans are a nice addition to the biscuit topping.
Fantastic recipe and a big hit! Just a note that you can prepare the filling and the topping in advance. Mine survived fine in the fridge for 24 hours, under plastic wrap, when the meal unexpectedly got postponed. Final assembly and baking the next day were easy. (I followed the recipe almost exactly, except for doubling the cornstarch, adding the suggested handful of blueberries, and substituting raspberry kefir for the buttermilk. Kefir is very similar to buttermilk.)
Made this last night, as written, and it was REALLY good and came together easily. My one caution is the salt content in the topping. I'd maybe reduce it to 1/2 teaspoon... the biscuits seemed a tad salty. Otherwise, great!
I made this in a 9 inch cast iron and it turned out great! I subbed lemon juice and milk for buttermilk because I never use the full container of buttermilk. And I accidentally did 8 TBS of butter instead of 6. Even with my mistake it turned out delicious! The filling thickened up more in the oven so I don’t think extra cornstarch is necessary. This is a recipe is pretty simple and worth trusting
Those are a lot of details. Why don't you give it a try and let us know how it turns out?
9x9 is 81 square inches. 10" pan is 78. So yea you'll be good with a ten inch skillet!
Using a pastry dough cutter keeps the butter frozen not softening from the heat of your hands.
Have started doing the topping separate from the fruit, based on one of Melissa Clark’s recipes. You end up having a less topping to fruit ratio with everyone enjoying their mix. I use two teaspoons cornstarch for this amount of fruit to avoid a runny mix.
I sprinkle 3 TBL sugar over the peaches to remove excess moisture, let set fo 30 minutes drain use 1/4 Cup of juice then add 1 1/4 tsp corn starch & 1 TBL lemon juice ,put in non metal baking dish bake at 425 degrees for 10 min or until bubbly around edges...remove place cobbie biscuits on top & sprinkle with sugar & return to oven & bake till biscuits are done ....delicious
Do not waste your time grating the butter. Just chop it into fingernail sized cubes, that’s what it’s going to turn into, anyway. Save your hands, friends
Because you can't grate it if it isn't frozen and grating it (smaller pieces than slicing/chopping it) makes it easier to incorporate.
Since the recipe notes that 9 x 9 baking dish can be substituted, I’m guessing a 10” skillet is best, right?
Use the iron pan. Cant go wrong. A real crowd pleaser !
As long as you adjust the amount. Kosher salt is flakier and therefore less salty per volume
PS - I also cut the salt in half proportionally.
Better than pie! Followed the recipe closely and would add more peach mixture next time. Other than that... It was delicious.
I halved all forms of sugar, except for the sprinkle of turbinado, which I eliminated. It was excellent! Not too tart, and let the peach flavors sing.
I doubled this for a large family gathering. The peaches were delicious, but the topping was too thick and lacked texture and flavor. I will look for another recipe instead of making this again.
Peaches are sweet. Why all that sugar? I cut it in half and it was still very sweet. Next time I’ll reduce even more. I’ll also increase the ratio of peaches to topping. Chopped pecans in the biscuit mixture was a great addition. It required an extra 8 minutes for the topping to bake.
I followed the advice to reduce the salt by half and am glad I did. 1/2 tsp was plenty!
The topping is absolutely and completely delicious. Next time I think I'm going to double it, because I prefer a hardy topping.
Recommend doubling the filling. It was very tasty, but not enough peaches!
I made a gluten free adaption of this recipe, substituting GF flour (with xantham gum) and GF oats in the biscuit mix. I substituted plain yogurt mixed with almond milk for buttermilk and added 1 egg. I also cut back on sugar in both fruit mixture and biscuit mix. Baked this in a 9” square pan in my Breville toaster oven. Delicious!
Not a great recipe for me. Way too much spice, obscures the peaches. And the toppling was thick and glommy. Too much buttermilk?
Needs more fruit for this amount of topping - 7-8 peaches.
I made half the recipe and it was easy and great. I wanted it just for 3 people. I used 5 peaches and halved everything else and it worked!
A lot of effort for at best a mediocre result. Fruit was fine; topping was not.
Great recipe. I followed the steps to the letter - EXCEPT - I do not like buttermilk. So I substituted whole cream. Worked fine. No one complained. All good!
Double the fruit, the nutmeg & cinnamon 😋 1/2 the salt
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