Blueberry Dream Bars

I love cookie bars. Spread a base into a pan, top with a second layer, bake and slice. Consistent throughout, cookie bars also spare the work of spooning dough onto a few pans. Winner.

Lemon Bars are one of my favorite recipes, but I hadn't ventured into a different variety recently. I was in the baking mood and grabbed ahold of a book I've mentioned before - The Cooky Book. Inherited from my grandmother a few years back, this book is the holy grail of cookie recipes. From bars, to drop cookies to doughs of the rolled out variety, you can pick a style and make it your own.

I went with Dream Bars, which have a cookie base topped with an almond and coconut layer over it. But instead of almonds, I decided to make a few tweaks.

The base was simple. Melted butter, flour, and sugar. That's it! I combined it in a bowl, then spread it into a casserole dish and baked it for about 10 minutes.

Blueberries are one of the best dessert fruits. Add these blue little bundles of joy to something as simple as Greek yogurt and you've upped the flavor level exponentially. They're sweet, but not overly so. That's why I knew they'd fit in just right here.

I combined eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, almond and vanilla extracts, coconut, and blueberry in small bowl, then mixed it to combine. After spreading it over the cookie layer, it went back in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the top layer was lightly golden.

After cooling, I sliced the bars and voila, blueberry dreams do come true.

Chewy. Sweet. Delectable. An ideal cookie confection. I made these on a calm Sunday evening and brought them into my office the next day. They were the right amount of soft to be chewy and not crispy. I scaled back the sugar in this recipe - blueberries add enough - resulting in a cookie bar that didn't make teeth ache. My colleagues and I were all rather pleased with the results, and it's safe to say I'll be diving in to cookie bars again. M&m's? Pecans? Let's see what we can come up with.

Blueberry Dream Bars Recipe

Ingredients:

For the cookie base:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour

For the topping:
2 eggs
1 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup crushed blueberries

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. To make the cookie base, combine melted butter, brown sugar, and flour in a small bowl. Spread into a 9x13 inch baking pan sprayed with nonstick baking spray. Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly browned. To make the topping, beat the eggs lightly, then mix in the brown sugar, vanilla and almond extracts, flour, baking powder, salt, coconut and blueberries. Spread over the cookie base, then return to the oven and bake for 20 minutes, until lightly browned.