Oat and Fruit Bars
Oat and Fruit Bars have become a favorite in my house. They are soft, fruity, and have a great texture from the oats. They are also super fun to make!
My girls love the Nutrigrain bars or Nature's Bakery Fig Bars. It is so hard to find an option for these bars that aren't full of bad ingredients. So I wanted to try and make some that are healthy with no preservatives. These Oat and Fruit Bars check all of those boxes.
A Healthy Snack!
Fruit and Oat bars are a very healthy snack. I like to have them on hand for my girls for an afternoon snack or a quick bite for breakfast. The dough is made with whole wheat flour, oats, and naturally sweetened with honey.
The fruit obviously has a lot of health benefits and are a nice sweet component to the bars!
These bars also have no preservatives, which is the best win of all!
Customize!
In this recipe, I am using my homemade cherry jam sweetened with honey. My mother-in-law has a cherry tree in her backyard so each year, we get a lot of cherries from her. Last year, I created a recipe to sweeten the jam with honey and it worked! If you don't have this options, you can definitely buy store bought jam. There are a lot of great jams out there with simple ingredients! You can always make your own, too! Play around with different flavors of jam or whatever your family likes!
If you are making these bars for children under the age of 1 or don't have honey on hand, you can also sweeten these with maple syrup. They will turn out the same!
Tips for making Fruit and Oat Bars
I like to blend up the oats in the food processor a little bit before mixing everything together. This will help the dough have a better texture and come together easier.
I make this recipe in a food processor but you can certainly do it by hand. If you are not using a food processor, you can blitz the oats in a blender to get them broken up a little bit.
The texture of the dough should be a little on the dryer side, looking like course crumbs. It should stay in its shape if you press it into a ball. When you turn it out onto the surface, it should easily press into a rectangle. It will feel similar to a pie dough or scone dough.
When you fold to dough over the jam, don't worry if it breaks on the side. These are rustic and perfect that way. Mine are definitely not picture perfect every time! Just enjoy the process and don't stress!
Try them out and let me know what you think!
Explore more!
Oat and Fruit Bars
A play on the ever so popular NutriGrain bars! Naturally sweetened with honey, it is a healthy snack to have on hand!
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold and cubed into small pieces)
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp plain greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup cherry jam (or your favorite)
- heavy cream (for brushing)
- Add the oats to a food processor and pulse 5-6 times to break them into smaller pieces. Add in the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and pulse 2 times, just to incorporate everything together.
- Add in the butter and pulse a few times to incorporate the butter. Pulse the mixture until the butter is pea-sized. Add in the egg yolks, yogurt, honey, and vanilla and pulse until the mixture comes together. It will not form a ball but will hold its shape when you squeeze it together.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and form it into a rectangle. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle, about 1/6 inch thick. Cut the dough into 8 equal rectangles using a knife or pizza cutter.
- Working with one rectangle of dough at a time, place one tablespoon of jam slightly off center to one side, leaving a 1/4 inch boarder. Brush the boarders with cream. Fold one side over the jam and pinch the sides together on either end and the long side. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat this process until the all of the bars are formed.
- Place the bars in the freezer for 10-15 minutes while your oven preheats.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Once your oven is preheated, pull the bars out of the oven and brush the tops with cream. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.
- Let the bars cool on the pan completely. They can be stored in a glass Pyrex dish in the fridge for up to 3 days and even longer in the freezer.
These are fun to make but take some time. Just slow down and enjoy the process! As you can see, mine are rustic, homemade, and definitely not perfect, but they taste great and we really do love making them!
I throw these in the freezer for a quick, healthy snack to have on hand at all times for my girls. If giving these to a child less than 1 year old, sub out the honey for pure maple syrup. They will come out great!