Rye Blueberry Bars

I've talked a lot about my love for blueberries on this blog, so it should come as no surprise that I was drawn to this Rye Blueberry Bar recipe when it arrived in my inbox from King Arthur Baking.  With a crisp, buttery crust and flavorful, fruity filling they satisfy that urge for a slice of blueberry pie with significantly less effort thanks to the simple pat-in-pan crust. Speaking of the crust, I loved the subtle rye flavor and the floral notes from the cardamom, though I might use a little less of the spice next time, see my notes below.

Rye Blueberry Bar Recipe:

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/rye-blueberry-bars-recipe

Yield:
8x8 pan of bars, so 12 or 16 bars, depending on how you slice them!

Difficulty:
Easy

A few notes/tips from my experience baking the bars:

As I said above, I love cardamom but I might use a little less than the prescribed amount next time. While it added another layer of flavor, I thought it came across a little strong and competed with the blueberry which I think should be the dominant flavor.

I would also make sure that the blueberry mixture visibly reduces as you're cooking it. As you can see in the photos, the bars held their shape just fine, but my filling was soft making it messy to eat unless a fork was involved.

I ran out of lemon juice as I was prepping the ingredients so I added lime juice to make up the amount and really enjoyed the flavor combo. I might switch to all lime next time.

No rye flour? No problem. As the recipe states, you can use all-purpose flour in its place. Obviously this will affect the flavors some, but I'm sure will still be delicious.

I hope you give this one a try, and if you do, let me know what you think!

Photos by Daniel Marks