BLUEBERRIES!!!! Oat Bars and Ice Cream!

I recently bought a BIG container of blueberries from Whole Foods. They looked great and I couldn't pass them up. While I love blueberries with my oatmeal and yogurt and granola, there were just too many to use up that way. SO, I made Dorie's Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream, from Baking From My Home to Yours. I know the TWD group made this back before I joined the group, so I'm glad I made it. Not to mention, it's great!

I made some slight adjustments, so here is the recipe as I made it.

Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream, adapted from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking From My Home to Yours, by Katrina (I doubled the recipe)

2 heaping cups fresh blueberries

2/3 cup granulated sugar

good pinch of salt

Grated zest of one lemon and juice of one lemon (about 1 scant tablespoon zest and 1/4 cup lemon juice)

2 cups heavy cream

1 1/4 cups light sour cream

Put the blueberries, sugar, salt and lemon zest and juice in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture boils and the berries pop and soften--about 3 minutes.

Pour the mixture into the bowl of a food processor and process until pureed, about 1 minutes. (It won't be completely smooth.) Add the heavy cream and sour cream and pulse just until blended. (The bowl will be pretty full, but with careful pulsing, it won't spill out.)

Pour into a large lidded bowl and refrigerate until it is well chilled. Scrape the chilled custard into the bowl of an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

As if that wasn't enough I had to use up more of the blueberries, and I love a good crumb bar, so I went on a quick search over at Cookie Madness. I knew Anna has posted plenty of blueberry bars. I picked a great one that I just think is fabulous. Here's a quick recap of her recipe with some minor changes I made. Anna had a few issues with the blueberry seeds, but I did not

Blueberry Oat Bars, by Anna, Cookie Madness

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used pecans--about 1/3 cup--I like nuts!)

Filling:
1 2/3 cup frozen blueberries
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2-3 teaspoons lemon juice (I used lime juice as I was out of lemons and had some limes)

Heat oven to 350. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick foil or parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add melted butter and stir with fork until evenly moistened (mixture will be very crumbly). Reserve 1/2 cup crumb mixture for topping; Press remaining mixture firmly over bottom of foil-lined pan. Bake 12 minutes to set crust. (I only prebaked the crust for about 8-10 minutes.)

Prepare Filling: In a small saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar and cornstarch. Stir in lemon juice. Turn heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until mixture begins to thicken slight (it won’t be too thick) and clear (about 7 minutes). Remove from heat and pour over baked crust. Crumble reserved crumb mixture over top.

Bake 30 minutes (I only baked this for 20 minutes, then added the nuts and baked it another 5 minutes.) until top is browned and filling is bubbly. Let cool completely in pan set on a wire rack. When cool, chill for an hour before cutting. Lift foil by ends onto a cutting board. Peel off foil; cut into 12 bars. Store in refrigerator, but serve at room temperature.

Makes 16 squares or 12 larger bars