Lemon Blueberry Bars

I have been stalking the fruit section at Jaya Grocer for cheap blueberries. I love blueberries and I do wish that they were more affordable. Can blueberries be grown in Malaysia? After all, we have grown strawberries in Cameron Highlands. Surely, we can do the same with blueberries? No?

Well, I found some (from Spain) selling at RM9.90 per pack of 125g. Not exactly cheap but cheaper than what they would normally sell for. 

Then I grabbed 2 big lemons (from Egypt at RM1+ each) with the intention of baking my favorite Lemon Bars. 

As I was preparing my ingredients, I thought, hey why not add the blueberries to the lemon filling? Blueberries and lemons are good friends, aren't they?

The lemon filling took much longer than usual to set, most likely due to the moisture contributed by the blueberries. Perhaps, I should have upped the amount of flour in the filling.

When these were cooling, I was very tempted to dig in. I mean look at those bleeding blueberries. The looked so luscious and juicy. I bet these Lemon Blueberry Bars taste great while still warm.

But I exercised restraint because I wanted to get clean slices for presentation purposes. So I chilled the whole pan in the fridge.

The filling contains 200g of sugar which is a lot of sugar. But please, do not reduce this amount because you do need this to counter the tartness of the lemon.

The base of the bars is buttery and is a good match for the lemon and blueberry filling. I love this lots and if I had my way, I could eat these the whole day. But no. I gave some away.

Lemon Blueberry Bars

Recipe source : Adapted from here

For the shortbread crust :

- 120g butter at room temperature

- 30g icing sugar

- 130g plain flour

For the lemon blueberry filling :

- 1 tablespoon lemon zest

- 80ml fresh lemon juice

- 250g fresh blueberries

- 2 large eggs

- 200g caster sugar

- 25g plain flour (suggest to increase because it took 40 minutes instead of 25 minutes to set.)

Method :

For the shortbread crust :

1. Beat butter and icing sugar until creamy.

2. Add flour and beat until dough comes together.

3. Transfer dough into a lined 8" pan and press the dough to cover the base of the pan.

4. Bake in a preheated oven at 160C for 25 minutes until lightly brown.

5. Remove from oven to cool on a wire rack.

For the lemon blueberry filling :

1. In a mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs until emulsified and thick.

2. Add lemon zest and juice and stir to combine.

3. Fold in the flour.

4. Add blueberries and stir.

5. Pour filling over the shortbread crust and bake for 25-30 minutes until the filling is set (it too me 40 minutes and the filling was over browned. I would increase the flour to account for the moisture from the blueberries).

6. Remove from the oven and cool.