Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

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Well you know you can pretty much count on me for berries and baking. The season has barely begun and I’m diving right in with some breakfast bars (I couldn’t resist these beautiful strawberries!). This is sort of like a berry crumble to-go, what could be better? I used a combination of two recipes because I really wanted to use fresh fruit and most recipes I found for fruit oatmeal bars were using jam, which I’m sure is delicious, but you just can’t beat fresh fruit. I found a simple recipe I adapted for the bar crust on Food Network and swapped out the filling from a recipe I found on Bob’s RedMill website. These came out super good, I think it could have had more volume in the fruit layer but I’ll have to experiment with this once summer comes and berries are flooding the markets. 

It’s going to be very busy over the next few weeks but I’ll be posting as much as I can and hopefully I’ll have some good news to report soon!

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

Fruit filling

  • 3 cups fresh Strawberries, diced
  • 1⁄4 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon water

 

Oatmeal Crust

  • 1 3/4 sticks cold unsalted butter, diced
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

 

To prepare the filling: In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the berries, sugar, flour, lemon juice and water. Stir over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer. Continue stirring until berries just begin to break down and the sauce thickens, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 350°, butter 9”x13” baking dish.

Mix together flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter pieces and mix with pastry cutter or fork until it forms a course crumble. Press half the oat mixture into the prepared pan and gently press to even layer. Next spread the strawberry filling evenly. Sprinkle the other half of the oat mixture over the top and pat lightly. Bake until light brown, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool completely, and then cut into squares (it cuts more easily after it's been refrigerated for a bit).