Berry Crumble Bars

Trying to determine how to best use a leftover portion of sugar cookie dough, I decided to make a crumb bar with the pound of strawberries in my fridge. I figured that the cookie layer, topped by chopped and sweetened fresh strawberries and a simple crumb topping would make a great dessert. So that's what I did. I experimented, and it worked! This could be even simpler with ready-made sugar cookie dough, but I used the leftovers from a recent batch of Alton Brown's sugar cookie recipe. I took the dough out of the fridge last night before I went to bed, and when I got up this morning got right to work putting this fruity dessert together.

After an exceptionally busy day, with Katie and Bill attending a friend's grandfather's funeral (sadly), and me taking the day off from work so the boys wouldn't have to miss a swimming party, we enjoyed a nice take-out dinner of Chinese food (Katie's contribution) and I brought down the plate of Strawberry Crumble Bars.They are sweet but not too, and while we didn't add anything to them, they could be REALLY great warmed up with a little vanilla ice cream.

Here's the recipe and a few photos...

BERRY CRUMBLE BARS
Oven 350 degrees Farenheit
Spray an 8x8 inch square pan with cooking spray

Ingredients:

Crust:  2 cups sugar cookie dough

Filling:
1 lb. fresh strawberries, hulled and then coarsely chopped (or any other berry of choice - add more sugar if it is a particularly sour berry)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Crumb Crust:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
8 tablespoons soft butter

Directions:

Prepare berries: toss chopped berries with sugar and cornstarch and let sit for about 10 minutes. Drain excess liquid from strawberries.You don't want this liquid making the dough soggy.

Press sugar cookie dough in bottom of prepared 8x8 pan.

Using a slotted spoon, put well-drained strawberries on top of cookie dough in pan, covering entire surface.

Top with crumb topping - directions follow:  mix flour and granulated sugar. Cut in butter until well combined and, using your hands, press the mixture together to clump. Break clumps over top of strawberries creating large crumb pieces (see photo as example).

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until top crumbs begin to brown. Remove from oven to cooling rack.  When completely cooled, cut into 16 squares.

Enjoy every bite!

And here are a few photos of the boys' day at the swimming party. Katie was sorry to have missed it, but I was very happy to fill in!