Blueberry Oatmeal Bars
You guys, these Blueberry Bars are one of the best things to come out of my kitchen this summer. And I’ve been busy! I made them like my famous Rhubarb Oatmeal Bars but tweaked the recipe to accommodate the pleasant sweetness of the blueberries.
Blueberry Bars
And because blueberries are hot in the stores right now, you can quickly whip these up for back to school lunches. Or make a batch for a coffee date with friends, because these are JUST like coffee house cookie bars.
Blueberry or Rhubarb
In the rhubarb recipe, there’s a lot of sugar. Well not actually a LOT of sugar but enough to make rhubarb sweet. In this recipe, I cut the sugar because blueberries are so naturally sweet. I also added some lemon zest to make the blueberry flavor pop. I like lime too, and it works as well as lemon just replace the lemon zest with lime.
A note on Wild Blueberries: Yes you can use wild blueberries in this blueberry bar recipe. You may need to increase the sugar; I will note in the recipe directions how to tell and where to add that.
Lunch Boxes Welcome!
I made a pan of these ostensibly for lunches. We snacked on them for a couple of days and still had enough to make up bags for school lunches. It’s so nice to have a 9X13 pan of bars, just enough for snacking and making lunches. Do be aware that the top layer will get softened when in a baggie or take-a-long dish, they still taste AS good so don’t worry about that.
Wondering what to take to a coffee hour at work or when having friends over for coffee? These bars are just like those four dollar bars you see for sale n the coffee houses. Except you’re making a massive batch of them. Pretty much coffeehouse food you can whip up at home.
Want to make a variation of these Blueberry Bars?
Try any of these recipes for a delicious easy cookie recipe:
Blueberry Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 cups of quick cook oats
- 1 1/3 cups of brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1 cup butter
- 4 cups blueberries picked over to remove stems
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup Sugar possibly more if your berries aren’t too sweet
- 4 TBSP flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350˚
Make the Crust/Topping:
- mix the dry ingredients together
- cut the butter in chunks and drop it in the dry mix, cut in with a pastry blender or two knives, or use your hands mix it in
- keep mixing until it's looks like coarse crumbs
- save off 1 cup of crumbs
- press the rest in the bottom of a 9X13 baking dish
- Make the blueberry filling
- put the blueberries, water, and sugar in a saucepan
- bring it to a boil over medium high heat, it will get very juicy as it cooks
- once it comes to a boil reduce the heat to keep it from scorching, just keep it bubbling lightly until the blueberries start to pop
- TASTE for Sweetness–take a small spoonful, cool it off and taste it, if it needs more sugar, add some now this recipe can accommodate up to 1 full cup of sugar
- remove 2/3 cup of the juice and whisk in the flour into it
- add it back in the pan and stir until thickened, cook and stir for 1-2 minutes and remove from the heat (you just made blueberry gravy!)
- spread the blueberry mix over the base layer in the 9X13, sprinkle with reserved crumbs
- bake for 30-35 minutes until top is lightly brown and the blueberries are bubbly
- let them cool before you cut it for best results
The blueberry with a little pop of citrus sounds amazing! I wish I had one in my lunch box today!