These Blueberry Shortbread Bars are going to be your go to summer dessert this year! These taste like a smooth blueberry ice cream on top of a thick buttery shortbread crust. Pretty, refreshing, easy, and delicious! The filling is made of heavy cream, sugar, blueberry jam and vanilla extract. The crust is a classic shortbread, made of flour, sugar, salt and butter! This can't get any simpler. All topped with a beautiful and delicious drizzle of white chocolate...PERFECTION!
Happy Friday everyone! There are a few sure things in life that put me in a great mood and two of them are Fridays and ice cream....so today is going to be a great day! These blueberry shortbread bars are basically an ice cream bar with a shortbread crust and a white chocolate drizzle! Simple, sweet, and perfect for summer! And since it's Friday, I am having two!
If you follow my blog you know I am obsessed with shortbread. Shortbread cookies, shortbread bars, and shortbread crumble...I can not get enough! I think it's because they are so simple and it is as close as I can get to eating pure butter without being completely disgusting. So needless to say, it was about time I made another shortbread recipe! One of my favorite recipes and also one of my most popular recipes is my Rosemary Lemon Bars, so I was trying to come up with a similar recipe since everyone loved them so much! So I thought maybe just switching out the lemon for another flavor like blueberry might be nice! Then somewhere along the line my train of thought got lost and I started to think about those strawberry shortcake ice cream bars everyone always had as a kid (because who doesn't just randomly think about those). Then I put the two ideas together and I got these blueberry shortbread bars (and I am not mad about it). One bite of these bars and you guys are going to be thanking me, I promise. They are super creamy and sweet like ice cream but also fresh from the blueberries and lemon zest. And then that shortbread...oh my goodness. The shortbread breaks up the sweetness and adds a buttery soft bite that is everything. Topped with white chocolate for an extra bit of sweet goodness. Perfect!
HOW TO MAKE THE CRUST
So the crust is the easiest part. You definitely already have everything in your pantry which is an extra added bonus. In the bowl of a stand mixer put your flour, sugar, butter (diced up and softened, salt and vanilla. Mix on low until crumbly and combined. That's it... no I am not kidding. You do not need to mix your dry ingredients first or cut in your butter. Just dump it all in there and you are done. I like to avoid unnecessary steps in my baking so if it is not needed, I'm skipping it!
Your mixture should be the texture of wet sand. Now just dump it into your baking dish (lined with parchment paper) press down and bake! I bake my shortbread always at a lower temperature because you want it to cook through without over crisping the edges. I aim to take it out before the edges get brown.
HOW TO MAKE THE BLUEBERRY CREAM FILLING
So this filling is kind of like an ice cream without the churning! Place your cream, sugar, blueberry jam (this recipe takes you through the steps to make your own jam from scratch first but you can skip those step and get store bought instead if desired) in a large pot. Use a larger pot than you think you need because it will boil over. Then bring your mixture to a boil and whisk continuously. Boil for about 5 minutes and then remove from heat. When I was recipe testing this recipe, I was scared this mixture would not set up without any eggs...but it did! The boiling helped evaporate some of the water in the cream and thickened it!
From there, pour your mixture over you crust and let chill in the freezer overnight! Drizzle with white chocolate if desired, serve and enjoy!
HOW TO STORE
Do not forget these are basically ice cream bars so they must be stored in a container in the freezer! Do not keep out for too long or they will melt and become a mess. Serve immediately! They will probably be gone in minutes anyway so I am not too worried.
Lastly, if you try out this Blueberry Shortbread Bars recipe, be sure to leave a comment/rating on how they turned out. I love hearing from you guys and will try my best to reply to every comment! And don’t forget to tag me on Instagram!
Blueberry Shortbread Bars
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup salted butter
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 cup flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon Vanilla
Top
- 2 ½ cups blueberries
- 2 ½ cups sugar
- zest and juice from 3 lemons
- 4 Cups heavy Cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
white chocolate drizzle
- ½ cup white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon vegtable shortening
Instructions
Crust
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine your sugar, flour, salt, softened butter, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium low speed until mixture is crumbly and combined.
- Line your 9x 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper that hangs over both sides of the pan (so you can easily take your bars out once done).
- Press your crumbly crust into the bottom of this pan evenly throughout.
- Bake crust at 325 degrees for 35 minutes.
- Take out and let cool.
Blueberry Top
- Start by making your blueberry jam. In a medium saucepan combine your blueberries, ½ cup sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Mash by hand so that all berries are crushed. Simmer on medium low heat for about 30 minutes or until thickened.
- Take your jam off the heat and strain jam at least two times! This is very important unless you want to be chewing on unpleasant blueberry skins.
- In a separate VERY large sauce pan, add your cream, remaining 2 cups of sugar, blueberry jam and whisk together. Bring it to a boil and whisky heavily and continuously.
- Once the mixture is boiling for about 5 minutes remove from heat and add your vanilla.
- Let cool for about 20 minutes. Then pour the mixture on to your crust. Let chill in the freezer for about 8 hours or overnight
White Chocolate Drizzle
- In a small saucepan, melt together your white chocolate and shortening on low heat.
- Using a fork drizzle over your frozen bars.
- Take bars out of the pan using parchment paper, cut and serve!
- Bars should be stored in freezer until you are just about to serve (they melt like ice cream so keep in freezer)!
Leave a Reply