Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars

Last Sunday I celebrated another birthday (sigh!) and my daughter Sarah surprised me by baking an absolutely lovely treat.  She blogs on tumblr and found the recipe there.  It was wonderful and the friends I shared it with couldn't stop raving about how tasty the bars were.  No wonder at all, because Sarah is a great baker.  If she hadn't started using my first Barefoot Contessa cookbook before I did - yes, that's right! - I don't know if I would have had the guts to try the baking recipes myself.  She hasn't had much opportunity to bake in the last four years of university, but maybe now she'll be making Martha Stewart's decadent Fudge Brownies again!  She also knew I'd want to blog about this and share the recipe, so she took the pictures for me. :)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 package lemon cake mix
2 eggs

2 tsp. zest and 3 tbsps. lemon juice (divided)
2 packages of 8 oz. cream cheese, softened (low fat is fine)
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 13x9 inch pan with foil or parchment paper, letting it extend over the sides for easier removal after baking.

Microwave butter for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until melted.  Combine melted butter with cake mix, 1 egg and the 1 tbsp of lemon juice - mix until well blended.  Press 2/3 of the mix onto the lined cake pan.

With a mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together.  Add in remaining egg, lemon juice, and lemon zest and mix well.  Pour this cream cheese mix layer over the cake mix.  Add the blueberries on top of the cream cheese.  Use the remaining 1/3 of the cake mix to crumble over the top.

Bake 48 to 50 minutes.  Let cool and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before slicing.  The cake slices best when lifted out of the pan completely.  Slices can be refridgerated in a sealed container to keep them moist.

After sampling the bars, my buddies Teresa and John came up with other possible versions.  Teresa sugested dark chocolate base with fresh raspberries, with melted chocolate swirled into the cream cheese and John's idea was chocolate base with pecans, with caramel swirled into the cream cheese.  I'm sure creating new variations of these tasty bars could go on and on...