Blueberry lemon custard bars are a perfect sweet summer treat! Fresh blueberries are layered over a sugar cookie crust and a rich and creamy custard for an amazing dessert.
Fresh Blueberry Dessert
These Blueberry Lemon Custard Dessert were inspired by one of my all-time favorite desserts, Rhubarb Custard Pie. The combination of a tart fruit with a sweet creamy custard is to die for. For this fresh blueberry dessert, we took a little bit of the sugar out of the custard to balance out the natural sweetness of blueberries.
Unlike pie, these bars are made incredibly easy with a sugar cookie crust made from a package. It might not sound fancy, but it tastes amazing and offers a great chewy contrast to the silky custard.
The Art Of Custard
For these Blueberry Custard Bars, a nice thick custard is best. If you mix the eggs and cream well, then add the other ingredients, you can’t go wrong. Make sure the sugar gets well dissolved in there too.
In this case, your custard is going to bake in the oven and become essentially the same type of custard consistency as creme brulee.
Creme brulee is a baked custard and is pretty much considered the creme de la creme of custard recipes.
What Type Of Blueberries?
You can use fresh or frozen blueberries. If you use frozen blueberries, be sure to thaw them first and pat them dry so they don’t add extra moisture to the dessert.
Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
The base of the Blueberry Bars provides a firm and crunchy sweet foundation for the rest of the bar. The Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix works perfectly because it provides almost like a pie crust to the base of the bar.
You can find this mix easily on the baking aisle with all the other Betty Crocker cake and cookie mixes.
Sugar cookie mix isn’t much more than sugar, flour, butter, salt, and baking soda or powder. So in a lot of ways it actually is similar to pie crust. No surprise then why sugar cookies do so well with all kinds of toppings.
Custard and blueberries has to be one of the best ways to go in terms of toppings though…
Can I Use Fruit Besides Blueberries?
If you want to get creative with the fruit topping, then by all means, go for it! If you want you can even make two types of fruit work as well. Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries all will bake on just as wonderfully.
These Strawberry Rhubarb Custard Bars are an amazing version of this dessert as well!
There really isn’t a fruit in this world that won’t go well with custard. In fact, I am pretty sure custard was invented just to make fruit even better than it already is.
Storage Tips
If you plan on keeping the bars, then make sure to refrigerate them in a container that has some breathing room between the top of the bar and the top of the lid. You don’t want a bunch of condensation dripping into the fruit and custard topping.
Any More Great Dessert Ideas?
If you are looking to improve your mastery of desserts, then I have some suggestions to hopefully inspire your confidence… and your appetite. Yes, custard ideas included too!
- Strawberry dark chocolate mini dessert cups
- Apple Pecan Custard
- Dulce de leche Nachos
- Sour cream raisin meringue bars
Blueberry Lemon Custard Bars
Equipment
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 17.5 oz pouch Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
- 1/2 c. Butter softened
- 2 T Flour
- 1 Egg
Filling
- 3 eggs beaten
- 1 c. granulated sugar
- 1 c. heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 c. flour
- ½ tsp. salt
- 4 c. blueberries
- 2 Tbsp. lemon zest
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°. Spray the bottom of 9×13 in pan with non stick spray.
- In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, flour and 1 egg until crumbly dough forms. Press firmly into the 9×13 pan.
- Top the crust with the blueberries.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, flour, sugar, cream, lemon zest and salt just until smooth. Pour the custard over the blueberries.
- Bake at 350° for 50-60 minutes. The center will still be a little jigly, but the edges should be set. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving.
- Store refrigerated.
Kate says
I can’t wait to get all of the ingredient for this pie! Going to taste sooo good!!!
Katelyn Bagtaz says
I made this recipe over the weekend but didn’t have the sugar cookie mix so I made a shortbread crust instead and they were sooooo good! I don’t think I went heavy enough on the lemon zest for my liking, they were still very mildly lemon (could also be that I didn’t do the full 2 T of zest as I only had 2 lemons and didn’t measure, lol). I will DEFINITELY be making this recipe again, especially once summer comes! Thanks so much!
Sarah says
I made this exactly per instructions and the custard never set, even after being in the fridge for 24 hours. What went wrong?
Danielle Green says
The custard should be mostly set when taking them out of the oven. It most likely needed more baking time before refrigerating.
Julia says
I made this and it was a crowd favorite! Very yummy. Taste as you go with the lemon zest to get it where you want it. Don’t zest down to the white stuff as that will make the batter custard bitter. I let the blueberries out all day so they could soften and sweeten up, yum!!
Sarah says
what is 2 T flour mean?
Danielle Green says
2 Tablespoons
Aileen says
When do you add the lemon zest?
Danielle Green says
In with the custard
ELAINE says
Where is the lemon zest used?
Danielle Green says
In with the custard.
Malinda says
These bars were so good and so easy to make! Thanks for the recipe!
Alison LaFortune says
These were so refreshing! And easy to bake up.
Julie says
I made these for a family get-together this weekend and they were a huge hit! The perfect combination of sweet and tart, we loved them!
Megan says
Lemon and blueberry is my favorite flavor combination so I was excited to try these. They did not disappoint! So rich and delicious, the perfect summer dessert!
Laurin says
These were delicious! However the instructions did not say what to do with the lemon zest and I didnt think there was enough lemon flavor, even after I added a dash of lemon extract myself. Overall a really yummy and different summer treat!