These raspberry oatmeal bars are the perfect healthier dessert! They’re soft & chewy in texture and are made with 6 wholesome ingredients that are gluten-free and vegan-friendly. You’ll be so surprised by how EASY they are to prepare!
I love to make these fruity raspberry bars for a sweeter breakfast or a healthier dessert! They’re made with an oat and almond flour base that is naturally sweetened, and sandwiched between the crumble is sticky raspberry jam.
The taste is perfectly sweet and a little nutty, and the texture is soft and crumbly, and if you chill them the results are even better! The texture of the bars becomes chewier when chilled and it is my personal favorite way to eat them.
Key Ingredients
My favorite thing about this recipe is that you only need 6 ingredients to make it, and they are all super nutritious! See below for all my ingredient tips.
- Oats – I like to use sprouted gluten-free whole oats!
- Almond flour – this adds a great nutty flavor, and some protein, and is naturally gluten-free.
- Raspberry jam – to make this recipe simple, I like to use store-bought raspberry jam.
- Coconut oil – to help bind the ingredients together I use melted coconut oil. You can also use melted unsalted butter.
- Peanut butter – only a little is used to bind the ingredients together and for a touch of peanut butter flavor! You can also swap for almond butter, cashew butter, or even tahini.
- Honey – for sweetening the oatmeal bars and for binding the ingredients together. To make the recipe vegan you can swap it for maple syrup!
How to Make Raspberry Oatmeal Bars – Step by Step
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1
Add crumble bar base ingredients to a bowl. In a large bowl add the oats, almond flour, honey, coconut oil, peanut butter, and pinch of salt.
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2
Mix together. Then use a rubber spatula to mix the ingredients completely together.
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3
Make the base of the bars. Next, line a 8×8 baking pan/dish, and line it with parchment paper. Set aside 1/2 cup of the crumble mixture, and lay the rest of it in the baking dish. Use a rubber spatula to firmly press and pack the crust all around. Then prick the crust with a fork in a few places to help the crust not rise.
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4
Bake the crust. Then bake the crust for 10 minutes at 350F. Remove and let cool for about 10 minutes before moving on to the next step.
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5
Spread the jam. Then spread the jam evenly over top of the crust.
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6
Sprinkle remaining mixture. Then sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture that was set aside over top. Bake the bars at 350F for 18-20 minutes, or until golden on top. Then allow the bars to cool for about 15 minutes before lifting from the pan using the parchment paper edges and slices into 9 bars.
Tips For Success
Make it nut free – if you have a nut allergy you can make this nut-free by swapping out the peanut butter for either tahini or sunflower seed butter. And instead of almond flour, use more oats instead!
Use different jam flavors – this recipe is a great base to use different jams! Aside from using raspberry jam, we also love to use strawberry, mixed berry, or blueberry jam.
Quality jam matters – since we’re using store-bought jam in this recipe, we like to make sure it’s a quality jam/jelly so the flavor is perfect. We recommend a jelly that has few ingredients, meaning no additives, and one that is relatively low in sugar! We love to use this jelly.
Don’t skip using parchment paper – this recipe requires parchment paper for lining the pan and easily transporting the bars out of the pan. If the parchment paper isn’t used the bars will be quite difficult to remove from the pan. So I don’t recommend skipping this step!
How to Store Leftovers and Freeze
Refrigerating leftovers: store the bars in an airtight container and refrigerate for 7-10 days. Keeping the bars at room temperature is fine too, but they will only last a few days especially if it’s warm. I recommend keeping any leftovers chilled to stay fresh longer.
Freezing leftovers: If you would like to freeze any leftover bars, store them in a freezer-friendly bag and lay the bars flat (if you’re going to stack them on top of each other then layer them with parchment paper). Freeze for up to 1 month! Let the bars thaw at room temperature until they’re soft enough to eat.
More Healthy Desserts to Try
Oatmeal Peach Blueberry Crisp
Healthy Pumpkin Blondies
Vegan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
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6 Ingredient Healthy Raspberry Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (use gluten-free oats if needed)
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup honey (or maple syrup for vegan)
- 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 cup raspberry jam
- 1 healthy pinch of salt (omit if the peanut butter is salted)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Chop the oats: In a food processor or high-powered blender, roughly chop oats until they are small pieces.
- Make the crust: In a large mixing bowl, add chopped oats & almond flour, coconut oil, honey, and peanut butter. Mix until the ingredients are completely combined.
- Bake the crust: Line an 8×8 square baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside 1/2 cup of mixture for the crumble topping, and pour the rest of the oat mixture into the pan. Press the mixture down firmly with a rubber spatula, spoon, or using your hands. It should be packed evenly and completely together. Use a fork to poke a few holes on top of the crust – this helps the steam rise without the crusting rising. Bake the crust uncovered in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let it cool for about 10-15 minutes.
- Spread jam over the crust: After the crust has cooled, dollop the jam over the top and carefully spread it evenly over the crust. Use the extra oat mixture that was set aside to sprinkle as crumble on top.
- Final bake: Then bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes, until the edges of the crust are golden brown. When they're baked, remove the bars from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes before lifting the paper edges from the pan and cutting them into 9 squares. Enjoy them right away warm or chill them in the fridge for 15-20 minutes for a chewier texture!
These were exactly what i was hoping for!
I made them with spelt flour, doubled the raspberries and used pecans and they were very delicious…thank you!!
So happy to hear that, Karine! Glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Is the calorie count for each piece or for the whole recipe?
It is per bar! (The recipe card doesn’t allow me to say that – sorry!). You can cut them into 12 bars and the calories per slice would be 256. They are a bit high in calories because of the almond flour and peanut butter. 🙂
Made this recipe tonight. Was easy and looks good. Will let you know how it tastes when it cools
I love how chewvy they turned out! I added some chopped hazelnuts into the mix 🙂
Love that addition! So happy you enjoyed them 🙂
Oh, I forgot to say that I added a sprinkle of white chocolate chips on top of the jam (a little over 1 tbsp), and they were a perfect pairing!
Loved these! I made a few modifications, because “healthy” does not always indicate “low in calories” -in fact, often it is quite the opposite! None of te ingredients in your recipe were unhealthy, but I wanted a slightly lower calorie final product. So I cut the almond flour in half (I found half a cup quite sufficient), I replaced the honey with slightly less sweet maple syrup and only used 1/3 of a cup, I used 1/4 cup of coconut oil instead of 1/2, and I replaced the peanut butter with one flax egg with an extra tbsp water thrown in to replace the lost moisture from halving the coconut oil. I also added a few drops of imitation butter extract, which I love in sweet baked goods! I only used half a cup of raspberry jam, which was almost enough; I think next time I will use 2/3 cup instead. I used a raspberry jam sweetened with dates. I also used a 9×9 inch pan and cut them into 16 pieces instead of 12. Delicious!
Thanks so much for sharing Ellie! Glad you could make it work with what you had on hand 🙂
Can you make this with fresh raspberry’s?
Hey, thank you for the recipe, turned out delicious! I’m a little bit unsure about the measures though. Do you know how many grams are in one cup? And how may tablespoons/millilitres of the coconut oil you used? Think I’ve added too much.
Thanks!
Can you substitute the jam for raspberries? If so ..measurement?
I’ve never tried fresh raspberries – but I’m sure it would be yummy. I’d use 1 to 1 1/2 cups of raspberries for the center!
Great recipe!! I love these bars. I used AP flour instead of almond flour and the substitution of 1 cup for 1 cup seemed to do the trick. I had to wait until they completely cooled for the bottom not to be super crumbly. (Trust me, this was a willpower challenge!) Thanks for the recipe. These will be breakfast bars for my kiddos tomorrow.
So glad you enjoyed them, Diane! Happy to hear the flour swap was successful. Means so much to hear you all love them! They’re slightly addicting. 😉
Have made these bars time & time again. With raspberry jam and sometimes with chocolate chips… they always come out delicious!
Thank you so much, Pattie! Adding chocolate chips sounds like a delicious idea ?
Made these and love them!! Love that they are healthy too
Thank you, Jen! So happy you love them too.