My first baking love will probably always be chocolate. I’m sure I am not alone in that sentiment. However, I do try to vary things a bit around the BoB kitchen. These bars are a nice deviation from the norm.
I’m pretty much a fool for the crust and crumb of these bars. Butter, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans…. Yes, please! There’s just something so warm and comforting about that combination. It’s certainly hard to resist.
In between those delicious layers is a thin layer of preserves. I let Quinn choose the flavor, and he picked blueberry. I must say that I think he chose wisely. The combination of blueberry preserves with the crust/crumb is just right.
If you’re an ice cream fan, these would probably be quite lovely with a little dollop of vanilla right on top. I’ll go the purist route and take them as they are.
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 3/4 cup blueberry (or other flavor) preserves
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°. Grease a 9″x 13″x 2″ baking pan and line with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and pecans. Add butter and combine with either a mixer or a pastry blender until crumbs form. Set aside 1 & 1/2 cups of crumb mixture.
Press remaining crumb mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until golden.
Spread preserves over crust. Drop reserved 1 & 1/2 cups crumb mixture on top of preserves. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until top is golden. Cool completely before removing from pan and cutting into bars.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Taste of the South.
December 2nd, 2011 at 6:34 pm
I’ve always been a fan of bars, yours look chewy and that’s how I like them
December 2nd, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Uh huh…I knew you would have to venture to “not chocolate” land just to balance the entries. But I was just wondering if you could replace the preserves with Nutella…just saying. Or if you did orange marmalade you could serve them with a drizzle of Nutella…I love orange and chocolate…still just saying!!!
December 2nd, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Tim, Nutella sounds brilliant to me. Brilliant.
December 2nd, 2011 at 11:41 pm
These look wonderful. I’m partial to blueberry too.
December 3rd, 2011 at 1:20 pm
I would love to put brownie batter layer in between – since I am a little over partial to chocolate
I’ve tried it before with other chewy bars and your recipe looks tops!
December 3rd, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Yummy! What brand of jam did you use? I can never find any that taste ‘right.’ :/
December 3rd, 2011 at 4:20 pm
I love making my own cereal bars… at least that way I know what’s in them.
These look delicious.
December 3rd, 2011 at 4:29 pm
Lily, I used Bonne Maman blueberry preserves.
December 3rd, 2011 at 6:45 pm
Wow, these look so delicious!!
December 5th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
My husband is wild about blueberries…I can’t wait to make these for him!
February 24th, 2012 at 7:09 pm
Looking forward to trying these. What is the best way to store? Fridge or room temp?
February 25th, 2012 at 10:37 am
An airtight container at room temperature is fine.
March 2nd, 2012 at 11:41 am
Just cut the cooled bars. So so so yum! Thanks!