Blueberry-Apple Cobbler Bars

I made these little bites of deliciousness last week, just to get rid of some of our leftover food (i.e. blueberries and apples). Maya loves when I bake, because she enjoys playing with the sugar and flour I spill on the counter (yes, I am quite a mess in the kitchen). I have never made a cobbler before, though I am always drooling over cobbler recipes. I liked this one, because it wasn't meant to be eaten with a spoon, but could be picked up like a brownie. Sadly, these sort of fell apart anyway, but once frozen, they stayed relatively intact. They were really easy to make, and I had fun cutting in the butter/shortening. It's funny - while I was making them, I was thinking I would definitely end up with a bunch of fruit, covered with a giant dusting of flour, because the batter wasn't really wet at all. The crumble topping ends up coming out like a really nice crumbly crust, though, and it tastes really good. My mom asked me if these were a "light" recipe. I told her yes, but then realized that they aren't really light (though I did experiment with light butter) - they are just well portion controlled. Each bar comes out to 200 calories, which isn't so high, for a dessert... Right?







Maybe you should try these... Kevin doesn't do fruit desserts, so he couldn't rate these, but I give them 3 Bowls. They are good, but in my humble opinion, it's a not a real dessert, unless there's chocolate involved.

Blueberry-Apple Crumb Bars
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup shortening (I used half "light butter," which actually worked pretty well!)
  
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon (optional)
• 4 cups fresh blueberries (I used frozen blueberries, and used half apples, because I didn't have enough berries)
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 teaspoons cornstarch

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and cinnamon, if desired. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the shortening and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.
3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

First, a public service announcement:

You MUST eat some cantaloupe this summer. They are in season and delicious. This cantaloupe made my day...




After making the sweet potato breads on Tuesday, I had exactly 1 cup of mashed sweet potato left, and no home for it, so I decided to make biscuits. I knew I was taking the kids to Karen's (my sis in law) house, for breakfast on Wednesday, so these biscuits seemed like a perfect option. The recipes comes from Cooking Light, and the biscuits are definitely light - they weigh next to nothing, and don't have the typical heavy, buttery feeling of a decadent buttermilk biscuit. I didn't find them to have a particularly strong sweet potato taste, but they were good, nonetheless. Unfortunately, I didn't make them quite high enough, so they looked more like orange cookies, but the taste was decent. I think I would make these again for a brunch, or for a fall holiday, but they aren't something I'm going to be making on a weekly basis or anything. One major plus: They were EASY to throw together. Perfect as a last minute baked good to bring to any sort of potluck breakfast or lunch.

This recipe calls for a 2 inch biscuit cutter, but mine is 2.5 inches, which led to my slightly wider, flatter biscuits.