Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Raspberry Oat Bars

Here I go again, baking!  Oops.  But I have a really good reason (besides wanting to eat something dessert-y of course)...

We came home from 2 birthday parties & several hours out of the house on Saturday, and I was very dismayed to find a bag of frozen raspberries out on the counter, very much not frozen.  Darn it!  I didn't want to throw away the bag, I had only used a few raspberries & most of the bag was still there.  For some reason "raspberry oat bars" popped into my head, so online I went to find a recipe!  There are plenty of cookie-type recipes, which wasn't really what I wanted, & this I found this one...

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup old fashioned oats
  • 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup butter, melted
  • 1 mostly-full bag (12 ounces) raspberries, fully thawed
  • In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt; stir in butter until crumbly. Reserve 3/4 cup for topping. Pat remaining oat mixture into a 9-in. square baking pan coated with cooking spray.
  • Bake at 350° for 5-7 minutes. Spread with fruit spread. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Bake 25-30 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 16 servings
Original recipe: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Oat-Berry-Squares?_mid=455702&_rid=455702.1270742942.32146

I followed the recipe exactly, the only exception being I used just raspberries instead of the "spreadable fruit."  I used a fork to take the raspberries out of the bag, leaving the "juice" behind, and spread the raspberries around evenly.  Then I poured the "juice" over the raspberries & put the topping above that.

These came out so yummy!  They taste a little dessert-y but I like that there's not a whole lot of sugar, & it's balanced out with the oats & whole wheat flour.  I let it cool for awhile and cut it into 16 squares.  This was Saturday night...24 hours later there were only 3 squares left!  James thinks they are very yummy but I have only let him have a bite or two here & there...but Tim & I have been helping ourselves!  I would like to try this with blueberries, I think that would be very good also!

1 comment:

  1. Debralee, I LOVE this recipe! I just made it!! Since you seem into modifying, I thought I'd share what I modified with you. I only did so because I wanted to give them to Ava and I'm a bit anal about what I give her still. :)

    -I did 1/2 c. butter and 2 tbs. olive oil
    -I reduced the sugar to 1/2 c. and added a bit more oats to dry it out
    -I added 4 heaping tsp. (because it was the clean utensil I had out) ground flax seed meal

    I also love that you are more of a baker... I'm SO much more of a cook. (I hate that you actually have to measure things with baking, and I'll admit, sometimes I still don't!) :) Anyways, it seems like you're into healthy baking, and I made some reduced sugar, whole wheat and flax seed carrot cake cupcakes for Ava's birthday. They were a big hit. Let me know if you'd be interested in the recipe. :)

    PS How do you have time for all this??? :)

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