Blueberry Oatmeal Crumb Bars are my go to tea time snack. We all know that a little sugar livens the senses. Just one of these babies gets me through to the end of my work day.
These snacks are terribly tasty. Truth be told, they’re rather decadent, so take your time when enjoying them. The base is beautifully buttery and so is the crumb topping. The buttery richness is juxtaposed with a sweet yet zesty blueberry filling.
These snack time treats are super easy to create. The recipe mentions the use of a food processor to make the base and crumb topping, but a processor or mixer is not vital. For the crumb, all you need to do is rub together the dry ingredients with the butter to create a crumb consistency. For the base, the wet ingredients can be folded into the dry ingredients with spatula and then pressed together into the base of the baking dish.
Blueberry Oatmeal Crumb Bars are great with a cup of coffee or tea, they are surprisingly filling too. Using a 13 x 9 baking dish, this recipe will garner 9 large crumb bars or 12 medium ones. You decide.
You can use fresh or frozen blueberries, jumbo or regular. In fact, you can use any berries in this recipe. I often make crumb bars when I have a lot of fruit in the fridge or freezer to avoid waste from becoming over ripe or freezer burned. Waste not want not and all of that.
This is a great kid-friendly recipe. They’ll have lots of fun helping you whip up some sweet treats for the family. If you have three kids you can put one on base duty, one on crumb duty and the other on the fruit filling. You can save your energy for baking and cleaning up.
Blueberry Oatmeal Crumb Bars
Ingredients
Fruit Filling
- 3 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tsp cornstarch
Crumb Bar Base
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted - two sticks
- 1 large egg yolk
Crumb Topping
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp fine salt
- 1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter divided into 1 tbsp chunks
Instructions
Fruit Filling
- In a large bowl mix ingredients with a spoon until the cornstarch disappears and set aside.
Crumb Bar Base
- In a food processor mix together flour, sugar and salt on a medium speed.
- Add oats and mix thoroughly.
- Add egg yolk and slowly pour in melted butter.
- Tip out into the baking dish and press into a solid level layer and set aside.
Crumb Topping
- Place flour, sugar and salt in food processor and mix thoroughly on a medium speed.
- Add oats and mix thoroughly and then drop in butter pieces.
- Continue on medium until the ingredients turn into a coarse cornmeal consistency.
Crumb Bars
- With a slotted spoon, add a single layer of blueberries on top of the crumb bar base.
- Scatter the crumb topping on top of the blueberries.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 375 until the crumb topping becomes golden - approx. 1 hour. The crumb topping will crack a little and some of the blueberries will bubble through.
