A friend brought me a whole bucket of strawberries from a local strawberry farm. Wasn’t that nice? Berries equal excitement in my house!! These strawberry vanilla oat bars weren’t the first thing I made with all the strawberries. When I looked at all those strawberries, I saw the opportunity to develop recipes! After we ate a ton of them, I thought about what I could make. The first thing I made was a double batch of strawberry cinnamon rolls. I couple of months ago I made apple cinnamon rolls and couldn’t believe how good they were…so why not strawberry? I whipped up a basic sweet dough, added a delish strawberry compote, and baked them to perfection, they were…..so goooood!
I took a pan right out of the oven to the people who had gifted me with strawberries, then some to my husband’s work, and, of course, we ate the rest!
Hmmm, what else could I make? How about a breakfast oatmeal bar? Of course, this would be delicious! An oatmeal bar that could be a dessert or make a fun breakfast.
I start putting it together. As I’m making dinner, I was snapping pictures and tasting, it seemed to be coming together quite well! The prepping was finished and put them in the oven to bake. These strawberry vanilla oat bars smelled so good!
I pulled it out, let it cool for a couple of minutes, and gave it a taste…..alright, good stuff right here! I snapped a few more pictures and called the kids in to get a taste. Their reaction wasn’t the normal “that’s good mom”, but “omg, that’s soooo good, can we have more!?”
These are probably going on my blog. Then the hubby came home from work. I cut one for him and put it on a plate…. His reaction….”This is the best thing I’ve ever had!” Ok, I have to put these on the blog, they are just. that. good.
Tips for making the perfect strawberry oatmeal bars
This bakes up as an apple crumble would. What helps it cut well into bars is the bottom layer. Make sure to grind the bottom layer enough so that it will press easily into the bottom of the pan.
You can use any type of berries in this! Whichever berries you decide to use slice them and make sure to sprinkle on the flour, this will help to absorb some of the wetness from the berries. Frozen or fresh berries will work!
If you try to cut these while they are still hot they will crumble apart. If this happens, serve them up in a bowl with some ice cream! If you want them to cut out in cute little squares, let them cool completely before cutting!
Can you replace the coconut oil with butter? Yes, it would work well in this recipe. If you are using salted butter you will want to reduce the amount of salt you are using. I use the amount of salt I do because of using coconut oil in this recipe.
For other breakfast, ideas check out this simple Chia Pudding recipe!
Strawberry Vanilla Oat Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup chopped walnuts could also use pecans
- 1 ½ cup oats I used old fashioned
- 1 cup unbleached flour
- ⅓ cup packed brown sugar + 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon pink salt or sea salt
- 6 tablespoon coconut oil melted
- 2 teaspoon real vanilla
- 2 cups strawberries sliced with 1 tablespoon flour and 2 tablespoon sugar sprinkled over the top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- In a small saucepan, melt coconut oil. Once it's melted, whisk in vanilla, maple syrup and salt.
- In a medium mixing bowl measure in chopped nuts, oats, sugar, and flour and stir.
- Pour coconut oil mixture over flour mixture and stir until there's nothing dry.
- Put half of this mixture in a Nutri-bullet or food processor and pulse a couple of times so it can be pressed easily to the bottom of the pan.
- In a separate bowl, slice strawberries and sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour and 1 ½ tablespoon sugar on the berries. mix well.
- Take the half of the crumble that you blended, and press it into the bottom of your pan with your fingers or the bottom of a measuring cup.
- Pour your strawberry mix over the top and spread evenly.
- Spread the remaining crumble on top.
- Bake at 350 for about 35 min.
- Let cool completely then cut into squares and serve.
Notes
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