Cranberry Oatmeal Bars — ❤️🙌🎉 Fast, easy, no mixer bars with juicy cranberries and big oat crumbles! Perfect for breakfast, snacks, or dessert! Soft, chewy, hearty, and so good!
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Cranberry Oatmeal Bars Recipe
These cranberry crumble bars are soft and slightly chewy, and the hearty oats with big crumbles are a perfect contrast to the juicy cranberry filling.
They’re easy, you don’t need a mixer, and the crust and crumble topping are one and the same. That means one less step and one less bowl to wash.
I boiled fresh cranberries with sugar and orange juice. Orange and cranberry are such complementary flavors, and the subtle citrus brightens up the overall flavor of the bars. Add orange zest to taste if you want to intensify the orange flavor.
The bars aren’t overly sweet and the tart cranberry flavor shines nicely making them an easy grab-and-go breakfast bar, snack, or dessert. Plus, they’re egg-free, which may come in handy for some people.
Love Fruit Crumble Bars? Try These Next!
These cranberry oatmeal bars are one of many crumble bar recipes on my site! Be sure to try these recipes too: Raspberry Oatmeal Crumble Bars, Blueberry Oatmeal Crumble Bars, Pineapple Crumble Bars, Strawberry Oatmeal Crumble Bars, Mango Oatmeal Crumble Bars, and Mixed Berry Crumble Bars.
Ingredients in Cranberry Oatmeal Bars
To make these oatmeal cranberry bars, you’ll need:
- Fresh cranberries
- Orange juice and zest
- Cornstarch
- Granulated sugar and light brown sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Old-fashioned oats
- Salt
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Cranberry Bars with Oatmeal Topping
These oat and cranberry bars come together so easily! Detailed instructions can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post, but here’s an overview of the recipe steps:
- Make the filling: Bring the cranberries, orange zest juice, and sugar to a boil on the stove. Once the cranberry mixture has come to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, add the cornstarch, stir to combine, and simmer for about 15 minutes.
- Make the crust / topping mixture: Mix the crust and crumble topping ingredients in a large mixing bowl (the same mixture is used for both!).
- Set 1 heaping cup of the mixture aside to be sprinkled on later as crumble topping. Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of an 8×8-inch dish.
- Assemble the bars: Spoon the cranberry sauce over top of the crust, leaving a 1/4 inch margin around the edges. Then, sprinkle the reserved crumble mixture over that. I like to squeeze the oat mixture in my palm before sprinkling to encourage bigger crumble pieces to form.
- Bake the bars: Bake until the edges are set and the center has just set and is lightly golden brown. Then, cool for at least 2 hours before slicing and serving. The cranberry layer needs plenty of time to set!
Recipe FAQs
Yes! For this recipe, you need to use fresh cranberries so make the bars while cranberries are in season. Frozen fresh cranberries work too! Just don’t use dried or canned cranberries.
Yes, you may use fresh cranberries that have been frozen to make the filling for these bars. No need to thaw the cranberries first since they cook down on the stove anyways!
No, don’t use quick cook or instant oats because they’re finer in texture and behave like flour, which will make mixture too dry.
Most likely, yes. Since these bars lean more towards the soft and chewy side of the texture spectrum vs. light and airy, you should be fine to use a gluten-free all-purpose flour substitute to make the crust and crumble mixture.
Storage
Store leftover cranberry oatmeal bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. They do not need to be stored in the refrigerator!
The bars also freeze well. I recommend freezing them in the baking pan and transferring them to a zip-top freezer bag. (This prevents the crumble topping from being squished when initially sealed in the bag.) When ready to eat, thaw frozen cranberry oat bars on your counter for about an hour before digging in!
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Cranberry Oatmeal Bars
Equipment
- 1 Medium Stockpot
- 1 (8 inch) Square Pan
- 1 Microwave-Safe Bowl
- 1 Wire Rack
Ingredients
Cranberry Filling
- 2 cups fresh cranberries
- 2 teaspoons orange zest, optional and to taste
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons corn starch
Bars
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup old-fashioned whole-rolled oats, don’t use quick cook or instant, they’re finer and behave like flour and will make mixture too dry
- pinch salt, optional and to taste
Instructions
Make the Cranberry Filling:
- To a medium stockpot with high sides, add the cranberries, optional orange zest, orange juice, granulated sugar, and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring often to incorporate the sugar.
- Once mixture has come to a boil, reduce the heat to medium low, add the corn starch, stir to combine, and allow mixture to simmer for about 15 minutes. While it simmers, make the bars.
Make the Bars:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- To a large, microwave-safe bowl add the butter and heat on high power to melt, about 1 minute.
- Add the sugars, vanilla, and whisk to combine.
- Add the flour, oats, optional salt, and stir to combine. Mixture will have some larger, well-formed crumble pieces as well as some sandier, dryer bits.
- Set 1 heaping cup mixture aside to be sprinkled on later as crumble topping.
- Transfer remaining mixture to prepared pan, and using a spatula or your fingers, hard-pack the mixture to create an even, smooth, flat crust.
- Add the cranberry filling over the crust making sure there’s complete coverage but leave a 1/4-inch bare margin around the edges. Tip – The cranberry filling will burn if it’s touching the edges of the pan and will also stick like crazy.
- Evenly sprinkle with the reserved heaping 1 cup crumble topping mixture. Tip – Before sprinkling, I squeeze the mixture in my palm to encourage bigger crumble pieces to form.
- Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until edges are set and center has just set and is lightly golden browned.
- Place pan on a wire rack and allow bars to cool for at least 2 hours before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Tried it with water instead of OJ and it was perfect.
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad that water worked out just fine!
Tried it with water instead of OJ and it was perfect.
These cranberry oatmeal bars sound amazing! My husband doesn’t like citrus in dessert, so can I replace the orange juice with water? Thanks so much!
Probably but the flavor will be different of course overall. I haven’t tried with water so not sure how the bars will taste.
I just made these with two changes. I only used 1/2 c. sugar in the filling and I used cran-grapefruit juice instead of orange. (I left out the optional orange zest.) In my humble opinion, orange always outshines the cranberry in that combination and I wanted to taste the cranberry. Now these are the best cranberry bars I’ve made – and I’ve made a lot. I think that the bitterness of the grapefruit juice compliments the berries bitterness which in turn is softened by all the sweet in the crust. I think that regular grapefruit juice would work too. Those are my two cents for anyone who might be interested! Thanks for the great recipe!
The cran-grapefruit juice sounds like a great twist! Glad it worked out well for you!
these look incredible! we don’t use cranberries nearly enough
hey girl these look so good!
I just bought 5 bags of cranberries! Can’t wait to make these bars! The crumble topping looks amazing.
Oh these look delicious! Crumble bars are great :)
These are gorgeous! I always love crumble bars. And I always buy cranberries for garnishes…now I know how to use them up!
Yes! Because this uses about 2/3 of a bag which sounds perfect for you if you’re just using a partial bag for garnishes!
Ooh, yummy–now I need to decide which crumble bar to make first!
These bars look fantastic Averie! So yummy and perfect for the holiday season!
Thanks Trish! Happy Thanksgiving!
these are BEAUTIFUL! Can’t wait to bake these for brunch!!!
Thanks! :)
Oh, they look so delicious! Something to make with my Mum who loves snacking on bars.
– Charmaine
https://charmainenyw.com
The filling looks fantastic–oj and cranberries are perfect together and I think I could go to town on that alone. However….I am a crumble lover so the bar part of the recipe is really giving me a craving!!
They were really good and even my daughter was going to town on them and kids usually prefer chocolate, marshmallows, peanut butter, or frosting :)
Can I thaw and use frozen cranberries if I already have those?
Probably but I haven’t tried and so the consistency of the filling will change so you will need to experiment possibly with how long to boil/simmer, how long to bake the bars, etc.
Ohhhh I love the addition of orange juice! I can only imagine these two go very well together. I was actually looking back at my apple oatmeal breakfast crumble recipe, and I started craaaaaving something like that… And then I saw your recipe. Can’t be a coincidence, right?! ;)
Have a great week!