These cranberry oatmeal bars are more than a perfect dessert for the holidays.
Although they are the squares you want to make for any holiday occasion, I also love seeing them on the table any time of the year.
With their jewel red filling and sweet tart cranberry flavor, you just know that they are perfect holiday oat squares.
I think you will want to add these yummy squares to your list of holiday dessert recipes for sure.
But don’t forget to make them other times too. Whenever you put these cranberry squares on the table, they disappear.
So how do these wonderful and colorful squares come together?
Pretty easily it turns out.
Ingredients for Cranberry Oat Bars
This is such a wonderfully simple recipe with ingredients you pretty much have on hand.
The 3 main ingredients are readily available and are things you will have in your kitchen pantry – oats, all purpose flour and butter.
Add a bit of baking soda and brown sugar.
Then just open a can of whole cranberry sauce. Not the cranberry sauce that looks like a can full of red jelly. Use the sauce made of whole cranberries.
Not only will it look better than the jellied sauce, it will taste better too.
What could make these oat bars even better? You can decide to make your cranberry sauce from scratch!
It is not necessary of course. Canned cranberry sauce is what is called for in the recipe and it’s great. And very convenient.
But for those of us who want to make the best of any recipe you make, you can opt to take the slightly longer road to cranberry squares and make your own cranberry sauce from scratch.
Making Your Own Cranberry Sauce for This Oatmeal Bar Recipe (Totally Optional)
So, if you want to put in a slight bit of extra work, you can certainly make your own cranberry sauce for this recipe. It will be even better!
Cranberry sauce is pretty simple to make from scratch with just a bag of fresh cranberries and a few other simple ingredients.
It doesn’t take that long and tastes marvelous.
The recipe has the option of cooking the cranberries in a bit of orange juice instead of plain water.
It’s a tip that I think you will really enjoy. Cranberries and orange juice really go well together.
Make Cranberry Oat Squares Any Time of Year
Whether you use the convenience of canned cranberry sauce or choose to make your own, these cranberry oat bars are perfect any time of year.
That said I love to make them around the holidays. In fact cranberry oat bars are one of my favorite holiday dessert recipes.
The bright red cranberry filling makes them a perfect dessert to be a part of a Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert table with other cookies and squares.
If you are having a dessert buffet, include these colorful oat squares.
I find that every time I make these cranberry squares, they get scooped up right away.
Everyone seems to love the sweet tart combination of cranberry and oats.
And of course, I love how simple they are to make.
Whenever you choose to make these wonderful oat and cranberry squares, I do hope you enjoy them.
Let me know in the comment section below how they worked out for you.
And also whether you chose to use the canned cranberry sauce or when all out and made your own from fresh cranberries.
Either way, I think you will enjoy this simple and tasty dessert or snack recipe.
Cranberry Oatmeal Bar Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups oats
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 15 ounces whole cranberry sauce, canned
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Lightly grease a 9 x 9-inch pan.
- Combine the baking soda with the flour. Add the brown sugar and oats and stir them together to mix well. Work in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture is crumbly.
- Pat half of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan to form the crust.
- Spread the cranberry sauce evenly over the layer of oat mixture. Pat the other half of the oat mixture on top.
- Bake the oat bars for about 45 minutes.
- Cut them into squares once they have cooled.
- Makes 16 to 20 squares.
Notes
You can change up these oat bars by replacing the cranberry sauce with your favorite jam. Try blueberry jam or sauce or raspberry. Either would be delicious.
Nutrition
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