Blackberry Crumble

Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE dishes.  I have dishes for almost every holiday (Easter, Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's day, Fourth of July...) And I have dishes for some months and some seasons.  I have Summer dishes, fall dishes, January dishes, February dishes, and Spring dishes.  Then I have a couple sets of china that get used once or twice a year, a 12 set of Noritake (we call the basketball dishes because my husband used them with his J.V. basketball team while I was out of town), my high school china (where I grew up, all the senior girls buy china from this traveling salesman that visits all the high school Home Ec. classes since those farm girls "just get married and move to the farm", I had to get pulled from wood shop to purchase my set and then I moved to Alaska full time for college). And I'm not even going to start listing the depression glass pieces I have. So you see, I love run-on sentences and dishes!

My depression glass is beautiful and functional.  I use it all the time.

In my defense, I did not purchase all these dishes.  My husband has purchased three of the above sets (Noritake, January, and February) and now these.  They are stamped "occupied Japan"  I had to do a little research on these.  They were exported between 1945 and 1952 while Japan was occupied by the Allies.  It is a 12 piece place settings, with a dinner plate, cup and saucer, bread plate, dessert plate, fruit bowl, soup bowl, covered soup tureen,  gravy boat and three serving plates!  It is so awesome.

Dave needed a reward, so I made these blackberry bars (really, I just needed an excuse to bake that day).  The original recipe was for blueberry bars, but I had blackberries in my freezer.  They were so good, I'll be making these on a regular basis.  Now, when anyone says I have an illness for dishes, I remind them that Dave is in on it too.

INGREDIENTS:

adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

For the Crumb:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 egg

For the Blackberry Filling:
4 cups fresh or frozen blackberries (I used frozen)
½ cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
Juice of one lemon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.

2. Make the Crumb: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter, and then the egg (the dough will be crumbly). Press half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently fold in the blackberries to coat evenly with the sugar mixture. Spread the blackberry mixture evenly over the crust, drizzling any excess juice in the bowl over the filling. Crumble the remaining dough evenly over the blackberry layer.

4. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the top is light golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

July 31, 2013   SRise 4:49 am  SSet 11:03 pm (-6min. 57 sec.)  Temp. H 81/ L 56ºF