Name: Ooey-Gooey Blackberry Crumble Bars
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour; • 1 cup finely chopped pecans - divided; • 1/4 cup granulated sugar; • 1 teaspoon cinnamon; • 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar; • 1/8 teaspoon salt; • 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), cut in pieces, room temperature; • 12 ounces fresh blackberries; • 1/3 cup blackberry preserves; • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

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Enjoy summer’s most delicious berries in ooey-gooey crumble bars. These bars will be an OUTSTANDING addition to any cook-out, potluck or group gathering. Easy to make and easy to serve, this is a RELAXED and stress-free recipe.

Make the most of late summer blackberries

According to the calendar, the first official day of Fall is in a couple of weeks. That’s really hard to believe, considering it’s 95° and sunny at my house today! I’m definitely not ready to bring out the apple candles and pumpkin spice and say my goodbyes to summer. The way I look at it, I have some time to advantage of all summer’s best attributes, which are luscious, juicy berries. However, I do want to start a slow transition to autumn flavors. Today, I accomplished that with these tangy, delicious blackberry crumble bars. The blackberries are my tribute to summer, and the cinnamon and pecans are my fall gateway flavors.

These bars take a little more effort than making a regular crisp or crumble. There’s an extra step needed to make the fruit stable enough to cut into bars. I didn’t want to fuss with plates, bowls, or serving utensils and bars are perfect for transporting and setting out at cook-outs, potlucks, or office gatherings. (They are also safer since there is no sharing of serving items). If you wanted, you could individually wrap them in plastic wrap and avoid any chance of cross-contamination.

Simple ingredients and little prep

The ingredients are simple and require very little prep. Other than preheating the oven and prepping the pan, the only other prep is cutting the butter in small cubes.

butter in cubes — Cut butter in small cubes and let come to room temperature

This recipe does, however, does need a food processer. If you don’t have a food processer, a blender or mixer can work with a bit of patience. A food processor makes this recipe easy/peasy! There are three tasks for the food processor, including chopping the pecans, creating the crumble crust and topping, and pureeing the blackberries.

A food processor makes easy work!

Images of food processor bowl with pecans, berries, butter and crumble mixture. — Use food processor to chop pecans, blend crumble mix and puree berries.

Use half the crumble topping to form bottom crust. The bottom crust gets pre-baked for 15 minutes. This step doesn’t add to the time or take any additional effort. It bakes while the blackberry mixture comes together.

Crumble pressed into pan to form bottom crust — Form the bottom crust and bake for 15 minutes.

Thickening the blackberry sauce is an extra step but well worth it. The pureed blackberries, jam, and lemon juice go on the stove over medium heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. This step reduces the extra moisture in the sauce, so the bars get thick and gooey and hold their shape.

Thicken the sauce on the stove top

images of berry sauce — Cook berry sauce till thickened and pour on pre-baked crust

The thickened sauce goes over the pre-baked crust. Top the sauce with the remaining crumble mixture and pecans.

images of pan with berry sauce and crumble — Top berry sauce with remaining crumble and sprinkle with remaining pecans.

Bars are easy to transport and serve

It bakes for an additional 20 minutes. Let the bars completely cool before cutting. Enjoy!