I have been making these Raspberry Oatmeal Bars on repeat as healthy breakfast bars for busy mornings. They are crunchy jam bars, filled with sweet raspberry jam, and topped with a buttery oat crumble. Plus, they are also gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan.
I love creating oatmeal bar recipes for breakfast, and depending on the season, I make my vegan blueberry oatmeal bars or apple oat bars. But I wanted a lovely, vibrant red breakfast bar this Christmas, so I adapted two of my previous recipes to create these vegan raspberry crumb bars.
Honestly, they come out so perfect and are so easy to make, either with fresh or frozen raspberries, that you can make them all year long. The texture of crispy toasted oat with coconut oil, maple syrup, and the sweet baby jam in the center delivers the best tasty breakfast ever that tastes like dessert!
Ingredients and Substitutions
The main ingredients you need for this recipe are pretty basic.
- Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats – you can also use quick oats instead. Make sure you use gluten-free certified oats if you can’t eat gluten.
- Oat Flour – read how to make oat flour if needed.
- Maple Syrup or any liquid sweetener you love, including agave syrup and coconut nectar. While you can swap maple syrup for brown sugar in the jam, you can’t do that in the oat layers.
- Coconut Oil – or melted plant-based butter or any other oil like olive oil
- Cinnamon is a must for flavor
- Vanilla Extract or almond extract are both great to balance the bitterness of the raspberries
- Fresh Raspberries – or frozen raspberries, no need to thaw the fruits but this option releases more liquid, and therefore, you need to cook the jam longer to avoid a runny filling.
- Chia Seeds is the jam thickener, you can replace the seeds with cornstarch if you prefer
- Almond Extract or more vanilla extract if you don’t like this flavor.
How To Make Perfect Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
These raspberry oat bars are the easiest breakfast bars simply because the oatmeal batter that you are using for the bottom layer, is the same you use for the bar crumble topping.
Step 1: In a mixing bowl, stir rolled oats, oat flour, maple syrup, vanilla extract, melted coconut oil, salt, and cinnamon until they stick together. Squeeze the batter with your hands to bring the ingredients together.
Tip #1 : The trick here is to set aside a good amount – about 1/2 cup – to use as a crumble later in the recipe.
Step 2: Press the remaining batter at the bottom of a square pan lined with greased parchment paper. Use a silicone spatula to smoothen the surface and fill any hole.
Step 3: Place the pan in the fridge to let the bottom layer set while making the jam.
Step 4: Then, all you have to do is cook all the jam ingredients together: fresh or frozen raspberry, chia seed or cornflour, and sugar. Cook until thick and bubbly, don’t forgot to stir constantly or it can stick to the saucepan.
Tip #2: Always remove the saucepan from the heat before stirring the vanilla and almond extract, or they evaporate, and you will lose all their flavors.
Step 5: Spread the jam on top of the bars.
Step 6: Crumble the remaining oat batter, and it’s ready to bake.
Tip #3 : make sure you rub the oat batter between your finger tips, above the jam to create tiny pieces of crumb and don’t try to cover all the top of bar to let some of the juicy jam visible.
Tip #4: When the bars are still hot, sprinkle chocolate chips on them. The chocolate and raspberry combination is fantastic. Or cool down the bars, and then serve with a drizzle of vegan royal icing recipe or a dust of powdered sugar.
Step 7: Serve the raspberry oat bars plain or with some toppings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, this recipe works with all berry types, like boysenberries, strawberries, or blueberries.
Some berries, like raspberries, release more juice and need a little more time cooking the jam to make the filling firm and not runny.
You can use all-purpose flour or gluten-free all-purpose flour blend.
However, the dough will be a bit drier and need a bit more liquid to stick together.
Simply add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water until the dough forms a ball.
No, the crust won’t firm up without oil or melted vegan butter. It won’t work with an oil-free swap like applesauce.
Yes, don’t thaw the berries cook frozen raspberries in the saucepan as you will do for fresh raspberries
You can store the raspberry oatmeal bars in the pantry in an airtight container for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 1 week.
You can freeze the bars and defrost them the day before breakfast.
More Bar Recipes
If you like bars for dessert or breakfast, you’ll love these other recipes:
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Raspberry Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup Oat Flour - (note 1)
- 1 ¼ cup Rolled Oats
- ⅓ cup Maple Syrup - (note 2)
- ⅓ cup Coconut Oil - melted (note 3)
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Raspberry Chia Seed Jam
- 2 ½ cups Raspberries - fresh or frozen
- 5 tablespoons Coconut Sugar - (note 4)
- 3 tablespoons Chia Seeds - (note 5)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ¼ teaspoon Almond Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line an 8-inch x 8-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all the crust ingredients: oat flour, rolled oats, maple syrup, melted coconut oil, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla.
- Squeeze the batter with your hands to bring all the ingredients in contact and create a dough that sticks together. If too dry (may happen if you are using coarse oat flour), add 1-2 tablespoons of water, add 1 at a time, until the dough is soft and stick together.
- Press 1 3/4 cup of the dough all over the baking dish, using a spatula to smoothen the dough and make sure there is no hole left. Set aside leftover dough in a small mixing bowl in the fridge. You will use it for the crumble on top of the bar.
- Place the pan in the fridge while you make the raspberry chia seed jam.
Raspberry chia seed jam
- In a small saucepan, add the raspberries, coconut sugar, and chia seeds.
- Cook for 1-2 minutes on medium heat until bubbles form on the sides of the pan.
- Mash the raspberries using a fork or potato masher and keep cooking for 2 minutes, stirring all the time to prevent the jam from burning. It should slightly thicken but still be very runny. It will thicken in the oven, don't worry.
- Remove from heat and stir in almond extract and vanilla extract
- Pour the jam on top of the prepared crust, then use the remaining dough to crumble all other the bar.
- Bake the bar for 35 minutes at 350°F (180°C) or until crispy on top and golden.
- Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack.
- Cool for 3 hours or until it reaches room temperature before slicing it into 16 bars. Waiting will prevent the bar from crumbling, and the jam will set perfectly.
Notes
- Note 1: You can replace the oat flour with the same amount of all-purpose flour or spelt flour. However, the dough might need 1-2 tablespoons of water to hold together.
- Note 2: Any liquid sweetener works.
- Note 3: You can replace the coconut oil by any other oil, including melted plant-based butter
- Note 4: use any sweetener like regular sugar if preferred or maple syrup
- Note 5: You can swap three tablespoons of chia seeds with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch or corn flour.
- Storage: Store the oatmeal bars in the pantry in an airtight container for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 1 week. Otherwise, freeze and defrost the day before breakfast.
I Carine we love your raspberry oatmeal bars. Could I make it with blueberries. If yes would I need to change the recipe.
You can definitely swap for blueberries, same quantities, same recipe!
These look delicious. I’d like to add more protein to them so I could eat for breakfast. If I added vegan protein powder how much would you recommend and would I need to make any other adjustments to the recipe?
I would add 1-2 ounces (max) to the jam (to not mess with the base) and add some water to keep the texture.
Thank you for sharing
Should it be 1/3rd of a cup coconut oil at room temperature – and then melt it? Or is it 1/3rd of a cup of melted coconut oil?
It’s better to measure it melted to be more accurate.
Don’t have the coconut sugar . What can I substitute with. Can I put maple syrup or honey.
Yes you can!