Strawberry Blackberry Crumble Bar

Uuuggh, being an adult is hard work!  My childhood lied to me!  I was made to believe that adulthood is living with your friends above a coffee house.  It's means having "ugly naked guy" as a neighbor.  It means always having perfect hair.  It means having a gigantic apartment with purple walls.  Ok, I watched a lot of Friends growing up.   

Nonetheless, I was misled.  I live next to a coffee place but there's not even a couch there.  All of my neighbors keep their shades closed.  My walls are brown.  My hair is always perfect though...   What I'm saying is, I intended to write a post days ago and being an adult got in the way.  Work and cleaning and watching Seinfeld.  Seinfeld doesn't just watch itself!  

So here I am, writing at 10:38pm when I should certainly be getting some sleep or at least watching Netflix.  I guess this is what being an adult is all about.  It's about having dirty dishes in the sink and unexplained pain in your feet and going to bed at 10pm and shaking your fists at noisy teenagers.

You're probably wondering how this Strawberry Blackberry Crumble Bar relates to adulthood?  It doesn't really but this blog is a one-way street so get over it.  Being that strawberries are in season and this bar is delightfully light and sweet, making it might solve all the problems in your world.  It solved mine.  Most of them.  I still don't know why my feet hurt.  

Here's the recipe!  

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
zest from one lemon
Filling
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 cups strawberries/blackberries (whatever proportions your prefer)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
4 tsp cornstarch

Instructions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and grease a 9x13 inch pan.  Set aside. 
2.  For the crust, in a medium bow, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups of flour, and 1 tsp baking powder.  Mix in salt and lemon zest.  Using a pastry cutter or fork, blend in egg and butter.  This dough will be loose and crumbly.  Press half of the dough into the pan to form the crust.  
3.  In another bowl, stir together 2/3 cups sugar, lemon juice, and corn starch.  Fold in strawberries and blackberries.  Spread the berries over the crust evenly.  Crumble remaining dough over the top of the berries.  
4.  Bake for 45 minutes until top is lightly brown.  Cool completely before cutting into bars.  Makes up to 24 bars.  

Recipe adapted from Baker Chick