Lemon Blueberry Bars

I'll be the first to admit I'm a dessert-aholic, but mostly with chocolate. I married into a European family, meaning that the chocolate I've fallen in love with can only be found overseas or in Canada. While I still won't turn down a Hershey's Kiss or a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. But my brother-in-law knows to pick me up a Yorkie Bar and a Flake Bar when he's out of the country (right, Steve?!).

My husband, though, prefers fruit-based desserts. He's a huge fan of those fancy fruit tarts you see at Whole Foods and loves key lime pie, apple pie, and any other kind of fruit pie. His fave, though, is lemon bars. I'm not a huge fan of lemon bars because I've always had them made from a box mix. So when Jeremiah requested lemon bars for Valentine's Day, I decided to go for a from-scratch route. I played around with a few recipes, and my family was willing be guinea pigs for a few weeks. I tried to use my own shortbread recipe but it just didn't seem to work well as a crust, so I borrowed from Allrecipes and found a winner :)

Lemon Blueberry Bars

by Girls in Aprons

Crust (from Allrecipes):

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon almond extract

Lemon Filling:

7 large eggs, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup flour

Blueberry Topping:

1 pint blueberries, picked through for stems

2 Tbsp sugar

Juice from 1 lemon

Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions:

For crust, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and confectioners' sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the butter and almond extract, and mix into a stiff dough. Press into a greased 9x13 and prick several times with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until starting to dry around the edges.

For lemon filling, whisk all ingredients together until blended. Pour over warm crust.

For blueberry topping, combine the blueberries and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until the berries start to burst, using a wooden spoon to smash the berries into a sauce. Let cool slightly. Pour over lemon filling in three straight lines, then drag a butter knife through the lines to create a zig zag pattern.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until center is set.

Before serving, sprinkle the top with powdered sugar