Strawberry Oat Bars with Nutty Crumble Topping

I love these strawberry oat bars. They make a lovely treat any time of the day, even for breakfast.

And they are so easy and fast to put together that this would make a great treat if you need to whip up a dessert or tea time treat in a short period of time. Having the strawberry filling made ahead of time (like me, I have it ready in the fridge) would save even more time. But if you don’t, both the filling and the oat bars can be whipped up within an hour. 

These strawberry oat bars consist of a layer of crust made using quick oats, plain flour, almond flour, and brown sugar. It’s pressed into a loaf pan and topped generously with the lovely delicious homemade strawberry filling. To top these all, a layer of buttery crumble made using the same ingredients as the crust plus a good amount of roasted almond nibs is sprinkled generously all over the strawberry filling and then baked to perfection. The results – deliciously buttery crust bars with sweet strawberries and nutty crunchy topping. Sounds good, right?

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How to Make Strawberry Oat Bars with Nutty Crumble Topping

Ingredients

Here is what you need to make these delicious fruit filled oat bars:

• Instant oatmeal
• Plain flour
• Ground almonds
• Brown sugar
• Butter
• Strawberry fruit filling
• Almond nibs 
• Salt

Making the oats crust

1. Start the process by preparing the oat bar crust. Measure the flour, instant oats, brown sugar, salt and almond flour into a bowl and mix them all with a whisk.
2. Next, add the butter (at room temperature) and blend it into the flour mix with a mixer. At this point, the dough would be soft and of a cookie dough consistency.
3. Save ½ cup of the crust and press the remaining into a lined loaf tin. Make sure the crust on the sides is slightly higher compared to the center. This is to contain the strawberry filling and ensure that it does not overflow on the sides.
4. Next is the filling for the oat bar. Fill the crust with the strawberry filling until it is the same level as the sides of the crust.
5. And finally, cover the top of the strawberry oat bar with the nutty crumble mix. To make the crumble mix, use the ½ cup crust saved earlier, mix it with 3 tablespoons of dry roasted almond nibs and sprinkle it evenly all over the strawberry topping.
6. Bake the strawberry oat bar for 25 minutes until the top turns golden brown.

Let the strawberry oat bar rest in the tin for a few minutes before lifting it out by holding the parchment lining on the sides. Let the bar cool down to room temperature before cutting it into smaller bars. 

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Notes

Can you add the almond nibs without roasting them?

• Roasting the almond nibs will ensure they are nice and crunchy after baking the oat bars. If you do not roast the nuts, they will not be as crunchy after the baking as they should.

How to roast the almond nibs on stove top

• There are 2 ways to roast the almond nibs. Firstly, you can simply dry roast them in a pan over the stove. Place the chopped almonds in a dry pan (oil is not required) and roast them over very low heat. Keep stirring to ensure they are consistently roasted.
• Once they start turning golden brown and you get the roasted nuts smell, you can turn off the fire. Transfer the almonds to a wide plate and spread them out to cool. It is best that they are not left in the pan after removing them from the heat as the heat from the pan will continue to roast the nuts resulting in your nuts being over-roasted.

How to roast the nuts in the oven

• The other method is to use the oven to roast the nuts. Simply line a baking tray with parchment paper, spread the nuts in the tray, and bake them in the oven until they are lightly roasted.
• In doing this, preheat the oven first. And then put the nuts in. The time taken to roast these nuts would depend on the size of the nuts. If they are chopped into small pieces, you would typically need just 3 or 4 minutes. But if they are chopped into larger pieces, you would need more time in the oven. The best way to do this is to try with just 2 or 3 minutes first. And then check every other minute until the nuts begin to turn golden brown.
• Again, once done, remove the tray from the oven and transfer the nuts to a wide plate to allow them to cool down. Leaving the nuts in the oven or even in the tray after roasting could result in the nuts being over-roasted from the residual heat in the oven or the tray.

Can you omit the nuts?

• Yes you certainly can. If you are not a fan of nuts, simply leave them out.

Can you use other types of nuts?

• I chose to use almond nibs in my strawberry oat bars and that is to complement the almond meal I added to the crust. That being said, you can replace the almond nuts with any other nuts you like. Simply chop and dry roast them in the same way as the almonds before adding to the crumble mix.

How long can you keep these oat bars?

• These oat bars last for a good 2 days at room temperature. Leftovers are best kept refrigerated.

Can you make these oat bars with other fruits?

• Yes, you certainly can. You can make these oat bars with other fruit fillings like blueberry filling, or you can even use other fruit jams to make these delicious fruit treats.

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Strawberry Oat Bars Recipe

Here is the full printable version of my strawberry oat bars recipe:

And that's my easy homemade strawberry oat bars recipes for you.

Here are my other posts you might want to check out:

• Strawberry Filling - An Easy Homemade Recipe
• Almond Strawberry Cake - A Perfect Tea Time Treat
• Strawberry Jam Cookies - Easy Sandwich Cookies

Happy Baking 🙂