I don’t do desserts too often, and when I do they’re usually made with simple pantry staples that I know I’m already going to have on hand. These super easy Raspberry Oatmeal Bars are the perfect example. They’re just flour, oats, sugar, baking soda, butter, and whatever jam you happen to have (in this case raspberry). This is the perfect fun weekend baking project for when you don’t want to go out to get more ingredients and you don’t want to make anything that is too difficult, but you definitely want something sweet. 😉
What Do They Taste Like?
These raspberry oatmeal bars are basically made out of the same mix that you’d use as a crumb topping for a pie. It’s rich, buttery, and has a good amount of texture, thanks to the rolled oats. When you compress this mix into a baking dish it becomes more solid and provides a base layer for the bars, but when you sprinkle it over top, it acts more like a loose crumb topping. And then you can put whatever flavor jam you like in the center!
Do Raspberry Oatmeal Bars Need to Be Refrigerated?
While you don’t need to store the baked oatmeal bars in a refrigerator, they hold their shape better when chilled, so I do prefer to keep mine refrigerated. Make sure they’re in an air-tight container to prevent them from absorbing odor and moisture.
Can I Use Quick Oats?
I used old-fashioned rolled oats for this recipe because they provide a lot more texture to the crumble mixture. You can use quick oats, which as smaller, softer pieces, in place of the rolled oats if needed.
Raspberry Oatmeal Bars
Servings 9Ingredients
- 8 Tbsp Butter ($0.88)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour ($0.10)
- 1 cup rolled oats ($0.18)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar ($0.32)
- 1/4 tsp baking soda ($0.02)
- 1/8 tsp salt ($0.01)
- 1 cup raspberry jam ($1.35)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Use a ½ tsp of the butter to grease the inside of an 8×8-inch baking dish.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.
- Cut the remaining butter into chunks, add it to the bowl with the flour and oat mixture, and use your hands to work the butter into the mixture until everything looks sort of crumbly or like damp sand, and no large lumps of butter remain.
- Pour half of the oat mixture into the baking dish and press it down until it forms a solid layer.
- Stir the jam to break up any clumps, then drop the jam in small spoonfuls onto the pressed oat mixture in the baking dish. Try to stay away from adding the jam too close to the edges. It's okay if the jam doesn't form a solid layer. Do not try to spread it with a spoon or knife.
- Once all of the jam has been added on top of the bottom oat layer, sprinkle the remaining oat mixture on top, leaving it loose and crumbly.
- Bake the oat bars for about 30 minutes or until the top is nicely golden. Remove the bars from the oven, allow them to cool, then cut into nine squares and serve.
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Equipment
Nutrition
How to Make Raspberry Oatmeal Bars – Step by Step Photos
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Use about ½ tsp of butter to grease the inside of an 8×8-inch baking dish.
In a large bowl, combine 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup rolled oats, ½ cup brown sugar, ¼ tsp baking soda, and ⅛ tsp salt. Stir until everything is very well combined.
Add 8 Tbsp butter (minus the ½ tsp used to butter the dish) to the bowl with the flour, oats, and sugar.
Work the butter into the flour and oats until the mixture looks a bit crumbly or damp. No large lumps of butter should remain.
Pour half of the oat mixture into the baking dish, spread it out evenly, and then press it down until it is in a solid layer.
Drop 1 cup raspberry jam (or your favorite flavor) onto the oat mixture, avoiding placing the jam right up against the baking dish (this makes it harder to remove the bars after baking). It helps if you stir the jam well first to break up any clumps, then you can drop small dollops onto the oat mixture to create a fairly even layer. Don’t try to spread the jam with a spoon or knife, as it will pull up the oat mixture.
Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over top of the jam. Leave this layer loose, do not try to press it into a solid layer.
Bake the raspberry oat bars in the preheated 350ºF oven for 30 minutes, or until the topping is nicely golden brown. Allow the bars to cool completely before cutting it into nine squares and serving. Running a knife around the edge to loosen any jam that may have baked onto the dish helps when removing the squares from the dish.
Enjoy the buttery, crumbly, oat goodness!
Love it! I used strawberry jam and dolloped a warmed serving with vanilla ice cream. So decadent but so easy.
Could I use gluten free 1 to 1 flour for this recipe?
I’ve never used that type of flour before, but I would suspect that it would work since you aren’t utilizing the gluten in the flour for this recipe like you would for a kneaded yeast bread. :)
I’m going to try it today with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour and I will report back!
Can this recipe go without butter? What can I use to substitute it?
The butter is a pretty large part of this recipe, so I don’t think you’d be able to substitute it, unfortunately.
My son is allergic to dairy and we use Earth Balance. Works great!
I can’t believe how ridiculously easy this was to make, and how delicious it turned out! I used cherry jam which was PERFECT for this (and it’s great I found this recipe because I have a lot of jams in my fridge that I need to use up). Also scaled it down to a tiny loaf pan to make 3 servings. I used a 2nd loaf pan of the same size/shape, and pressed it into the first and last layer. The squares hold up really well when completely cooled and set. And great tip not to jam it to the edge, because it’s good for the top and bottom oat mixtures to pinch the edges closed.
So scrumptious!
I wonder if there would be a way to incorporate peanut butter into this? Either into the crusty part, or the filling part. I’m simply mad about peanut butter!
I bet you could mix it into the base!
Ive made a recipe similar to this, and the peanut butter REPLACED the butter.
I swapped half the butter for creamy peanut butter and melted them together in the microwave before stirring them into the oat mixture.
These disappeared like magic! The recipe was very easy and oh so good. Instead of raspberry I used apricot jam instead. Will definitely add this to my recipe rotation.
May try to make these as a quick breakfast option or snack by decreasing the amount of sugar. As fall arrives I bet these would be really good with pumpkin purée or applesauce/butter with chunks of apple!
May try to make these as quick breakfast bars by decreasing the amount of sugar. I bet these would be really good with pumpkin purée or apple butter/sauce with small chunks of fresh apple as fall gets here!
I am making these now. They smell great, but I am having a terrible time getting it to brown. Ideas?
I added chocolate chips to mine. Oh my! I make these weekly for a sweet treat at work. Love this website! I enjoy cooking and eating again.
I doubled the recipe (used a full sized casserole dish and added about 5 minutes in the oven) and made these with strawberry jam. They turned out so well! I had everything in my pantry already except the jam, so these were really easy to throw together. Thank for the recipe!
Oh. My. Gosh. The Raspberry Oat Bars are addicting!!! It was so freaking delicious that my sister and I made them again for the second time!!! We used strawberry jam instead of raspberry because it was something we had available in the kitchen. The house smelled amazing. I’m looking forward to making these bars again soon. Thank you, Beth!!!! :-)
I will definitely try making these to day but can they be pre-cut and put in the freezer for a later date? Also I have some fresh blueberries kicking around that I want to use up can I put a layer of the blueberries on top of the jam or would it be to wet?
I think they’ll be too wet, unfortunately. The oat topping won’t be able to crisp up with all the juice from the fresh berries.
These turned out pretty great even though I accidentally cooked them for almost twice the time. I also used rolled oats because that’s what I have. One of those two changes may be why they were more crumbly than optimal. Next time, I’ll bake them for the recommended time and see if that makes a difference. If not, perhaps rolled oats call for a little more liquid.
I tried it two ways: 1 pan with strawberry jam and 1 pan with apple butter + 1 granny smith apple. The strawberry was great (raspberry probably would have been better). For the apple, I would recommend using 2 apples rather than just 1.
I think this is a great springboard recipe and plan to try it a whole bunch of different ways, mostly with different fillings. But I’d also like to try replacing some (or all, if possible) of the flour with oat flour for that full oat-y flavor, replacing some/all of the sugar with honey, and replacing the butter with coconut oil.
I know I didn’t cook it as you wrote it, but thanks for a great recipe!
So awesome and simple – my kids looked at the bars suspiciously at first and now they are absolutely hooked! Delicious oatmeal crust layered around raspberry preserves. AND…absolutely budget friendly and easy to throw together…win-win!!!
Always awesome.