This homemade apple oatmeal bars recipe is easy to make, great for lunches, snacks and desserts and makes a great healthy alternative to cookies and cakes!
Homemade Apple Oatmeal Bars Recipe
This homemade apple oatmeal bars recipe is easy to make, great for lunches, snacks and desserts and makes a great healthy alternative to cookies and cakes!
Ingredients
1 cup quick cooking oatmeal
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 1/2 cups apples*, chopped or 3/4 cup apple butter (omit cinnamon)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup add-ins (optional), any nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit or coconut could be added.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Combine the first five ingredients.
- Pat half of the mixture into an 8×8 inch baking pan.
- Layer apples and sugar.
- Crumble the remaining oatmeal mixture on top.
- Bake 35 minutes.
Notes
*Any other fruit may be used in place of apples or mixed with apples if you like. Raspberries or blueberries would be great!
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this looks sooo good… :D … thanks for sharing this :D
i keep thinking of these… they look soooo good… with a nice icy cold glass of milk too… yummo :D :D
I have a vision of a nice, warm square with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and warm caramel sauce drizzled all over…….:)
Is “quick cooking oatmeal” the same thing as instant oatmeal?
Thanks!
The difference in oatmeal is:
Instant is the kind you can just add boiling water to and serve. Like what comes in the packets.
Quick is the kind you cook but you only need to cook for a couple of minutes.
Old fashioned oats are the kind which need to cook much longer.
Most recipes unless other wise states use quick oats. This is what I call all purpose oats or everyday oats.
Hum…I bought old fashioned oats from Aldi for this recipe. They are supposed to cook for 5 minutes. Anyway I can use these…just cook them some ahead?
Anyone tried this? I hate to rebuy and not use these up. I have never bought oats before…my kids may like them for breakfast, but I have no idea.
Usually what happens when you use old fashioned oats in a recipe like this, the oats can have a slightly tough texture to them. The other oats become very soft and you almost don’t notice there are oats in them.
I made muffins which called for oats with my granddaughter this morning and she was so surprised because you couldn’t tell it even had oats in them at all because they had just melted away cooked in with the batter where if we had used old fashion we could have seen and felt the oats.
So you could try if you want. You might try it for breakfast for your kids. Add some honey, brown sugar, raisins, applesauce, nuts, dried fruit, butter, heavy cream or lots of things to it. We have a whole list of things to put in oats if you have a copy of Dining on a Dime you could check for more ideas in there.
There are three forms of oats. Steel Cut oats are basically in natural form and take an hour or so to cook. Old Fashioned Oats, also called Rolled Oats have been pressed or flattened (rolled) and cook in 10 minutes. Quick Oats are rolled oats that have been chopped up a bit and cook in 3-5 min. Instant Oats have been chopped a lot and cook in 1 minute. You can turn your old fashioned oats into quick oats by putting them in a food processor for a few short pulses. Not too long or you will have oat flour.
I made these last night and they were excellent (I went ahead and bought the quick oats)! Thanks for a great recipe!
It seems like a ton of butter though, any ideas to cut down on the volume of butter?
Jana I’m sure someone may have some ideas. Actually 1 stick of butter is normal for a cookie or bar recipe. I don’t usually worry about it too much because I think 1 stick spread through out about 24 cookies isn’t that much and I will just eat maybe 1 cookie a day when I make something like this.
I find it interesting now after years of hollering about not eating so much fat I have seen 3 different things this week alone on how we need to start eating more fat and to be sure we at least get some fat in our breakfast. I have never tried to keep up with these things because after so many years of living if I had done everything that “they” said we should do I would be down to a celery stick and glass of water (and treated water at that). I just eat it all in moderation (one cookie not 3) and things like that.
Should I soften the butter first? Or should it be melted?
Amy it can be slightly soften but for something like this it doesn’t matter if you take it straight from the fridge. I wouldn’t melt it though because it would make it a sticky mess and too hard to work with.
I mad ethis with plums an dit was SO TASTY! Reminded me of my Grammy’s balcberry cobbler (cooked blackberry and cooke dplum are similar in flavor). It was really easy to make, will be cookign it again soon!
I am making this as I type this. It’s been in the oven for almost 45 minutes; as the top and apples didn’t appear done. How do you know and also what is the best process for storing? I want to send some to my son in the Army. Recipe was very easy to make. Haven’t tasted yet since it’s still cooking 😊
When they are golden brown they are done. Also they will keep 3-4 days just in a airtight container on counter and a couple extra days stored in fridge. No sure how well they would ship Rebecca to your son. It would depend on how long it would take of course for them to get there and in the summer months they may not keep as well shipping either as in winter. Some cookies that are good to ship are chocolate chip, regular oatmeal, peanut butter, or snickerdoodles etc. Here is a post of ours that gives tips on shipping cookies and more kinds to ship. Most to the recipes listed here too are on the website or in our book. How to Ship Cookies