Healthy Strawberry Oatmeal Bars are made with a sweet buttery almond flour base that doubles as a crumble topping! The strawberry filling is bursting with fresh strawberries and a hint of lemon juice!
More favorite healthy snack recipes in a bar form are these healthy lemon bars, healthy carrot cake bars and healthy key lime pie bars.
Table of Contents
- Ingredients for Healthy Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
- How to Make Healthy Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
- Can I Substitute Other Fruit?
- Can I Use Frozen Strawberries?
- Can I Substitute Almond Flour?
- Could I Use Coconut Oil Instead of Butter?
- More FAQs
- Expert Tips
- How to Store Extras
- Do These Freeze Well?
- More Healthy Dessert Bars to Try
- More Strawberry Recipes
- Healthy Strawberry Oatmeal Bars Recipe
These irresistible healthy strawberry oatmeal bars are perfect for spring that’s in full bloom right now.
The buttery gluten free crust doubles as a streusel crumb topping. It’s a base made of almond flour, oats, cinnamon, maple syrup, and just a bit of cane sugar or coconut sugar.
The melted butter gives it that amazing buttery flavor and holds it together while still keeping it nice and soft.
The center is made with just 4 ingredients and is bursting with the flavor of ripe juicy strawberries! Adding a little lemon juice to brighten it up helps to ensure they’re not overly sweet.
These dessert bars are not overly sweet and healthy enough for breakfast. Just like these healthy strawberry muffins.
Let’s get baking!
Ingredients for Healthy Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
Healthy strawberry oatmeal bars are made with pantry staples you’ve probably already got on hand. The strawberry filling has just 4 ingredients!
For the Crust and Topping
- Almond flour: Acts like an all-purpose flour but without gluten and all the good fat and protein.
- Rolled oats: A staple ingredient in a streusel topping. Helps to create structure in the crust too.
- Cane sugar: Just a bit! Helps to sweeten both the crust and crumble. You can use coconut sugar, if you prefer.
- Cinnamon: Adds a warm spice flavor that pairs well with everything from the strawberries to the sugar to the butter and oats.
- Butter, melted: Once it solidifies it binds the crust together without making it too hard and crunchy. Also, that buttery taste is everything.
- Maple syrup: An unrefined natural sweetener that also goes with everything.
- Pure vanilla extract: Use a pure extract. One that you know and trust. Some types can have an overwhelming alcohol flavor which isn’t great.
For the Strawberry Filling
- Fresh strawberries: Loaded with vitamins, minerals, and even fiber. The red, ripe, and plump ones are the juiciest and most delicious.
- Lemon juice: A squirt of citrus helps to bring out the flavor of the strawberries and it also helps the filling set.
- Cane sugar: Needed to help sweeten the filling. This is essential if your batch of strawberries isn’t as sweet as you’d like them to be. You can also use coconut sugar.
- Cornstarch: Helps to thicken the filling so that is becomes like a jam and won’t run all over the place.
How to Make Healthy Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
These deliciously soft and chewy healthy strawberry oat bars are so easy to make with a few simple steps.
Make the crust, using just one medium size bowl. Combine the almond flour, oats, sugar, and cinnamon. Stir it and then add the melted butter, maple syrup, and vanilla extract to combine. The dough should be moist and crumble. Reserve 1/2 cup and set that aside.
Bake the crust. Pour the crumble into a prepared 8×8 baking dish. Use your hands to gently compact it together making sure the edges are touching the walls. Level it out with a spatula and bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes.
Make the filling. Add diced strawberries, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch to a bowl. Stir everything together, making sure all pieces of strawberry are evenly coated.
Assemble and bake the bars. Carefully remove the crust from the oven and top it with the strawberry filling mixture. Spread it out into an even single layer. Sprinkle with reserved streusel topping and bake for 40 minutes.
It’s fine that your crumble doesn’t completely cover the fruit. It’s even better than fine. Strawberry filling bubbling up through the crumble is the best!
Set and serve. Remove the healthy strawberry bars from the oven and allow them to sit for 30 minutes. Once cooled, transfer them to the fridge to set for just one more hour. I know, I know, but it’s worth the wait, trust me. Then, slice into 9 squares and dig in!
Can I Substitute Other Fruit?
For sure! My blueberry oatmeal crumble bars are just as amazing! You could also use any berry you’d like, blackberry, raspberry, or mixed berries. Try apple, peach, pineapple, or cherry.
Can I Use Frozen Strawberries?
You can use frozen strawberries as long as they are thawed and drained first.
Can I Substitute Almond Flour?
No. Almond flour is a hard one to substitute. You may like this healthy apple crisp with whole wheat flour, though!
Could I Use Coconut Oil Instead of Butter?
You can. Coconut oil is a great dairy free alternative and is also solid at room temperature. This helps to form the crust. Butter will result in a bit more of a softer texture than coconut oil, but either works.
More FAQs
Yes. With just a slight difference in flavor, they both work the same way to create a sweet filling that will remind you of homemade strawberry jam.
I use a simple glaze on my healthy lemon poppy seed bread that would work beautifully on these strawberry oat bars. Replace the lemon juice with a bit of milk if you’d prefer it without the extra lemon flavor.
Serving it with some yogurt or a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream might also do the trick.
You can use arrowroot powder instead. It’s a starch extracted from a plant and it’s a great gluten free thickening agent.
Expert Tips
- Fresh lemon juice: I always recommend freshly squeezed over bottled lemon juice for best taste.
- Shortcut: If you happen to have some homemade strawberry jam around, by all means, use it as the filling.
- Type of oats. Rolled oats only this time, please. Quick oats absorb liquid too quickly and won’t hold their shape.
- Leave them alone. As tempting as it is to dive right in, they need to set. Otherwise, they won’t be nice looking bars or squares when you serve them.
How to Store Extras
These can stay at room temperature for a few days. Be sure to keep them covered in an airtight container.
Do These Freeze Well?
These can be kept frozen for months. I freeze them on a baking tray at first to make sure they are individually frozen. Then I’ll transfer them to a freezer friendly bag.
Not having them frozen solid in a clump means you can take one or two out at a time. Thaw on the counter or in the fridge and enjoy!
More Healthy Dessert Bars to Try
- Blueberry crumble bars
- Healthy apple oatmeal bars
- No bake peanut butter oatmeal bars
- Healthy pecan pie bars
More Strawberry Recipes
- Strawberry chia pudding
- Strawberry smoothie
- Healthy strawberry cheesecake bars
- No bake strawberry cheesecake
- Strawberry muffins
- Almond flour strawberry muffins
- Strawberry bark
I hope you enjoy this healthy strawberry oatmeal bars recipe, be sure to browse through my whole collection of almond flour recipes!
Healthy Strawberry Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 2 tbsp cane or coconut sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
For Strawberry Filling:
- 2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries hulled and diced
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp cane or coconut sugar
- 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line square 8 x 8 baking dish with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add almond flour, oats, sugar and cinnamon; stir. Then add melted butter, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Stir well until dry ingredients are evenly moistened and dough is crumbly.
- Reserve 1/2 cup dough for topping. Transfer remaining dough to prepared baking dish and flatten with hands and spatula into an even layer. Bake for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, in a large bowl, add strawberries, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch. Stir well.
- Remove crust from the oven, add strawberry filling in a single layer and crumble dough on top. You will have some berries showing through. Bake for 40 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and let cool on the counter for 30 minutes. Then transfer to the fridge to firm up for another hour. Cut into 9 squares and serve.
Notes
- Store: In a cool dry place for a few days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Freeze: I like to freeze bars on a baking tray (not touching) until solid and then transfer them to a freezer safe bag for up to 3 months.
- Honey: You can use honey but lemon bars will have more overpowering taste of honey. It is personal preference.
- Bottled lemon juice: I recommend to use freshly squeezed lemon juice for best taste.
- Cornstarch: It thickens the filling and absorbs the moisture in the dough. You can substitute with arrowroot powder.
- Coconut oil: I believe you can use instead of butter, I have not tested though. Butter makes crust more soft and less crumbly.
Lovely softly flavoured, naturally sweet treat.
My mistakes:
I forgot to blind bake the bottom. Still good, but blind baking the base would have made it sturdier.
I was too generous with the base and had to make a half recipe more for the topping. It would have been better half and half the way the recipe is written.
I used frozen strawberries and added some rhubarb. The rhubarb made it a hair on the tart side. Strawberry alone would have been heaven.
In spite of my booboos I’ve already managed to inhale a significant hunk.
Looking forward to strawberry season so I can try the recipe with fresh berries – and fix my booboos.
Thanks for another wonderful recipe Olena!
Glad you made it work and enjoyed it.
Can you use frozen strawberries?
You can use frozen strawberries as long as they are thawed and drained first.
Delicious! Thank you! I used crushed walnuts instead of almonds and it’s really good. I soaked my nuts for a day (otherwise I can’t digest them), then dehydrated them, then put them in my Vitamix. Turned out great! I also substituted arrow root for corn starch.
Thank you for sharing your adjustments! So glad you enjoyed it!
Yummy! Hard not to eat them all! Will definitely be making these all summer long!
So glad you enjoyed them!