Blueberry Shortbread Icebox Cake – Make the most of your fresh, local blueberries with this cool, airy, and subtly sweet dessert that’s perfect for hot summer nights!
So, this is the third berry blog post I’ve written in a row now. First, I published an All-Natural Reduced-Sugar Strawberry Sauce which was then followed by Homemade Reduced-Sugar Strawberry Milk. Today I thought I’d switch gears just a teensy bit and dabble in blueberries.
It may appear so, but I swear that I’m not turning Simple Seasonal into a dessert blog! I just love all the fresh berries in my life at the moment. It’s really tough for me at meal times, because I’d rather just eat my fresh, local berries instead of making dinner. Truly, I lead a difficult life!
This Blueberry Shortbread Icebox Cake is all about the layers. It has a buttery shortbread crust. Layered on top is a dreamy, cool layer of cream cheese whip. The middle layer is a homemade, fresh blueberry filling. The final touch is cool whip sprinkled with white chocolate shavings. The combination is light, cool, subtly sweet, and just perfect for a hot summer night!
It also has the blue-and-white thing going on. If you want to go all-American just garnish each piece of this dessert with a pretty red strawberry. After all, more berries is usually a good thing! Just like that you have a refreshing and festive red, white, and blue dessert!
- 1 C (2 sticks) room temperature salted butter
- ⅔ C powdered sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 2 C flour
- 4 C blueberries
- ¾ C sugar
- 3 Tbsp corn starch
- 6 Tbsp water, plus more as needed
- 1 8 oz package of softened Philadelphia cream cheese
- 1 C powdered sugar
- 1 8 oz container of thawed frozen whipped topping
- 1 8 oz container of thawed frozen whipped topping
- ½ C white chocolate cut into shavings
- Preheat oven to 325º F and grease the bottom of a 3 quart glass baking dish with butter.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to cream the butter. Add the powdered sugar and cream the butter and sugar together. Next, mix in the vanilla and almond extracts until smooth.
- Add the flour to the bowl and work it into the butter mixture with your hands or a spatula until it is just combined. Take care not to overwork the dough so that you get a flaky shortbread crust.
- Gently press the shortbread dough into the greased baking dish so that it evenly coats the bottom of the pan. Use a fork to gently press shallow dots across the top of the crust.
- Bake in a 325º F oven for 15-20 min. It is done cooking just before it starts to turn golden-brown.
- Set the shortbread crust aside to cool. Allow it to completely cool before assembling your icebox cake so that your other layers don’t melt.
- Make the blueberry filling while the crust is baking. In a small saucepan combine 1 C of washed and stemmed blueberries with ¾ C sugar. Heat over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture becomes liquid. This will take approximately 5 minutes.
- In a bowl whisk together 6 Tbsp (3/8 C) water and the 3 Tbsp cornstarch until there are no lumps. Next slowly add the cornstarch mixture into the pot of cooked blueberries while stirring continuously so that it is evenly incorporated without any lumps. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture begins to boil and becomes clear and thick.
- Remove from the heat and allow the blueberry sauce to come to room temperature. Once cooled, add additional water the sauce until it becomes the consistency of pudding or the fruit gel filling of a doughnut.
- Gently mix the sauce in with 3 cups of washed and stemmed fresh blueberries. Note that it is important to allow the blueberry sauce to completely cool so that the blueberries don’t become mushy and the whipped layers of the dessert don’t melt.
- While the crust and blueberry sauce are cooling make the cream cheese whip. Cream together softened Philadelphia cream cheese and 1 C powdered sugar until they are completely combined and free of lumps.
- Next beat in one 8 ounce container of thawed frozen whipped topping for 3 minutes. Set aside until you are ready to assemble the icebox cake.
- Once the crust and sauce are cooled assemble the icebox cake. Evenly spread the cream cheese whip over the shortbread cookie crust. Next, gently do the same with the blueberry filling over the cream cheese whip. For the final layer top with an 8 oz container of thawed frozen whipped topping.
- To garnish sprinkle with white chocolate shavings. They can be made by running a vegetable peeler over a bar of white chocolate.
- Chill for at least 1½ hours in the refrigerator before serving. This dessert keeps in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
More blueberry recipes…
Fennel, Kohlrabi and Blueberry Salad
Blueberry Mint Fizz Cocktail
Sweet Blueberry Muffins
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