Perfect Blueberry Crumble

This blueberry crumble recipe is a favorite! The nostalgic summer dessert stars a sweet tart fruit filling topped with buttery crumbles.

Looking for a blueberry dessert that’s as perfect as they come? This Blueberry Crumble recipe is the perfect nostalgic treat for ending a meal. It’s got a juicy, fruity berry filling seasoned with cinnamon, allspice and lemon zest, topped with buttery, crispy crumbles. Add melty vanilla ice cream and it’s truly a sublime treat. In fact, we’ve stopped making blueberry crisp all together because this crumble is next level.

Ingredients in this blueberry crumble recipe

This blueberry crumble recipe is our favorite alternative to a crisp, though we love both nearly equally. The difference between a crumble and a crisp? Technically, a crisp has oats or nuts in the topping and a crumble does not: it’s essentially butter, flour and sugar. The lines have blurred in modern definitions of these recipes, so often you’ll see crumbles with oats. As much as we love oats, we went with the classic definition of a crumble here: and it was well worth it. Here’s what you’ll need for this blueberry crumble:

Blueberries
Granulated sugar
Cornstarch
Lemon zest
Unsalted butter
All purpose flour
Cinnamon and allspice
Baking powder
Salt

Use fresh or frozen blueberries

Don’t feel like you have to have a load of fresh blueberries for this one! This recipe calls for 4 cups fresh blueberries: which we had on hand from blueberry picking in Michigan. Don’t have access to that many blueberries? You can use frozen too! Add them to the recipe frozen: no need to defrost. Keep in mind that store-bought frozen berries can be a little more tart than fresh berries, so you may want to add a hint more sugar to the filling.

There are special precautions to take for baking with blueberries in cobbler, muffins and scones (the berries can bleed and dye the baked goods purple!). But with a crumble, there’s no risk: the berries don’t mix with the dry goods. This crumble is also a great place to use fresh blueberries that you froze to preserve them: just throw them into the pan frozen.

A note on the butter

This recipe calls for 7 tablespoons butter: which is an odd number. If you bake a lot, you’ll notice most crumble and crisp recipes call for either 6 tablespoons of butter or 8 tablespoons. But trust us! Seven is the magic number here, and it makes for absolutely perfect crumbles.

Want to make this blueberry crumble vegan? Just use vegan butter in place of standard butter: it works like a charm.

How to serve blueberry crumble

Once you’ve got your beautiful blueberry crumble, you’ll find it tastes great right out of the pan. But like most crumble recipes, it tastes even better topped with vanilla ice cream! The contrast of rich cream against the tart berries is perfection. Here are a few of our favorite toppings for this stunning dessert:

Vanilla ice cream: purchased or homemade
Whipped cream: homemade or yogurt whipped cream (or vegan whipped cream)
Creme fraiche: purchased or homemade
Cream sauce: try Creme Anglaise for an interesting twist!

Leftover storage info

Want to save this blueberry crumble? This dessert saves well at room temperature, refrigerated or frozen.

Keep the crumble for 1 day loosely covered at room temperature. This helps to maintain the crumble texture.
Refrigerate for up to 3 days. It holds up pretty well in the fridge, and tastes even better when reheated.
Freeze up to 3 months. Freeze for up to 3 months in a sealed container. Reheat it in a 350 degree oven until bubbly.

More blueberry desserts

This blueberry crumble is a favorite of our top blueberry desserts. Here are a few more to try:

Blueberry Galette

Easy Blueberry Cake

Best Blueberry Crisp Recipe

17 Tasty Blueberry Desserts

This blueberry crumble recipe is…

Vegetarian. For vegan and plant-based, use vegan butter.