A Cure for a Case of the Mondays

We’ve got one more recipe from the Niagara region of Ontario before we head off to a new international destination. This recipe again features the deliciously sweet and wonderfully inventive Ice Syrup, only this time we’re whipping up a dessert…because I need a dessert.

We chose to adapt a recipe from Lynn Ogryzlo who has created 1,400 recipes, most of which are dedicated to the seasons of Niagara. Our choice for this week is what we’re calling a Blueberry Ice Crumble.

We started by beating one egg to be cut into the dough. 

We then made the dough by combining white sugar, confectioner’s sugar, flour and cinnamon. First we cut in some butter, okay a lot of butter, with the pastry blender and then dropped in the beaten egg a little at a time.

After incorporating the egg, we split the dough into two separate bowls making one bowl a bit more generous for the bottom crust. We then added the baking powder and salt to the larger portion of the mixture.

Next we took the mixture with the baking powder and packed it into the bottom of a greased, 9×13-inch baking dish.

It was then time for the best part of the dessert (at least in my opinion) – the blueberries! We added ice syrup, sugar and cornstarch to the blueberries. We also tossed in a little lemon zest and lemon juice because it reminded me of that wonderful blueberry sauce I lapped up on vacation.

We spooned the syrupy blueberries into the baking dish over the bottom crust and took the remaining dough and crumbled it over the blueberries.

The blueberry crumble baked for 50 minutes at 375F and came out looking golden brown and perfectly crumbly.

The blueberry ice bars were a bona fide success. Both Mr. N and Miss A are really enjoying the bars which seems odd to me since they weren’t such big fans of the shortbread with blueberry sauce we had in Maine of which these were reminiscent. Apparently they’re enough different because they’ve both rung in with 4 spoons.

Mike and I are also enjoying this recipe quite a bit; and while I’m suspicious that Mike has sneaked some of these little babies for breakfast, we both remain slightly partial to the Maine shortbread. So we both agreed on 3 spoons for the blueberry ice crumble; which is not to say that this dessert won’t disappear because it’s still darn good!

I mean after all, what’s not to love about sugary blueberries wrapped in buttery goodness? Yummmmmm!

Print this recipe: Blueberry Ice Crumble

54 thoughts on “A Cure for a Case of the Mondays”

  2. A_Boleyn says:
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    “very simple simple that way”

    Sometime I think **I’m** simple. 🙂 Maybe I was just hungry as I was finishing up a chicken cutlet donburi for supper today. I added a bit of wasabi to the simmering sauce as per your recipe suggestion.

    It was very tasty with a slice of peach crumble for dessert but my mom’s tummy is squiffy so she didn’t have anything. Maybe I’ll give her a bowl of oatmeal later on. 😦

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    • Kristy says:
      Reply

      Bummer! I hope your mom feels better quickly. I had a stomach bug a few weeks ago and it’s the worst! Funny coincidence…it was right after our Japanese meal and I too had made a peach cobbler (with blueberries) then I got the stomach bug. I didn’t get but one piece of the cobbler. 😦 The kids and Mike had cleaned it out by the time I was better. Hopefully your mom will get better quickly enough to get a piece! 🙂 How did you like the wasabi paste in the sauce?

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      • A_Boleyn says:
        Reply

        My mom’s not a big fan of desserts. She’ll usually have one piece of
        whatever I made and then not want any more. Although she did like both the peach and blueberry crumbles with vanilla ice cream.

        I didn’t put very much wasabi in the sauce cause she doesn’t like hot/spicy stuff and it was for both our plates. I ended up eating the portion I had plated for her, even though I had planned on adding more wasabi to the sauce left in the saucepan that I was going to serve to myself. Next time I’ll have to add quite a bit more wasabi cause I can eat the stuff straight. 🙂 I’m going to make some sushi tomorrow and get my fix of wasabi then.

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  3. A_Boleyn says:
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    The reason I asked about the baking powder is that I used the crumble recipe on Rufus’ blog and it just divided the entire crumble mix in half, patting down the base and sprinkling the rest of the crumble on top of the fruit. It was my first time making a crumble and seemed to turn out great. I did it all in the food processor (cause I’m all about convenience) and it just made everything very simple simple that way.

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    • Kristy says:
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      I like simple! 🙂 I should try a crust in the food processor one of these days. I’ve never done that before. Well, if I try the crumble without the baking powder I’ll let you know what happens. 🙂

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  12. Caroline says:
    Reply

    Oh my gosh, now that’s my kind of dessert. I’m sure the berries tasted heavenly with that buttery crumble. This would easily cure my case of the Mondays. Wish I had a bar right now!!

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  13. Charles says:
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    Oh my God, can I haz? That last pic… sooo yummy looking. I’m also exceptionally jealous that you can have access to blueberries so easily. A tiny carton is like €4 here… and they’re funky blueberries. A pale white centre instead of being juicy and “blue”.

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  16. Kelly says:
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    That’s for sure! This blueberry crumble looks delicious and I have to agree, hard not to like the classic combination of butter and sugar 🙂 Lemon is the perfect complement to blueberry – love that. I may have missed it, but what quantity of flour did you use in the topping? (couldn’t spot it in the recipe). “Blueberry Ice Crumble” has such a great ring to it – my Monday is getting better already!

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  21. Kay aka Babygirl says:
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    I don’t eat a lot of blueberries at all but I must say this Blueberry Ice Crumble bars dessert is making me want to buy some blueberries in a hurry. This reminds me of blueberry cobbler for some strange reason. I can just imagine how your kitchen smelled.. amazing

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      • A_Boleyn says:
        Reply

        I made 2 batches of peach crumble and 1 of blueberry crumble (forgot to put the egg in the crumble part of the blueberry batch which was an ‘oh oh’ moment just as I put the pan i the oven) and gave most of it away to avoid just that happening.

        It freezes really well too not that the microwave doesn’t solve THAT problem … I’m just saying. 🙂

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        • Kristy says:
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          Hee hee – I too gave a bunch of this away; although I did hide some in the freezer too. I’m looking forward to breaking that out when I’m in need of a dessert one evening. 🙂

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          • A_Boleyn says:
            Reply

            The microwave is wonderful for thawing/warming each slice enough that when I plop a big scoop of french vanilla ice cream on top, it melts the ice cream just enough to the consistence of a creme anglaise. I’m getting bigger just THINKING about it.

            I do have a quick question about the recipe though … why is the baking powder and salt only added to the base?

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            • Kristy says:

              LOL! I know what you mean. 😉 You know I’m not really sure why the baking powder and salt are only in the bottom portion. I assume because the bottom portion is for the crust/cake base and the top is meant to be just a crumble topping. Honestly, I’m not sure though. I don’t even know that the baking powder is really necessary. I may experiment without it because it’s really more similar to a shortbread crust than a cake or biscuit crust.

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