Some more peanut butter action. Because peanut butter never gets old.
I took a step back form the cookie overload from last week and decided to get a little healthy. These taste like a cross between a brown sugar crumble pie and a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. If that even makes sense…Make these then you’ll catch my drift.
This past weekend my family and I took a road trip down to San Luis Obispo and whenever the words “road trip” cross my path or any form of traveling, my mind automatically starts concocting road trip snacks. Isn’t that the best part of traveling? Or am I crazy?
Either way that is where the inspiration for this recipe came from. If you need a quick, healthy and delicious on-the-go snack or breakfast, you will love these! We enjoyed them every morning with coffee and I ate them like popcorn during the 4 hour car ride. Girls gotta eat.
The peanut butter in these isn’t very overwhelming, which usually isn’t my fortey. The more peanut butter the better in my opinion, but it just didn’t work out that way for this recipe. Yet, I’m not complaining because they’re that good. These are basically the bees knees when it comes to crumble bars. They are so tasty and crumbly it will surprise you how healthy they are and the fact that there is no butter used at all!
They really do resemble a blueberry pie cobbler type dish, especially when you warm them up a little. Serve that over ice cream and it’s all over. Yes I tried this and it was HEAVEN. The weird thing is I don’t even like pie. I mean it’s okay but it’s not my style. Except for a chocolate creme pie or some sort of peanut butter pie. My point is, these are better than pie. That may be a biased statement from a non-loving-pie girl but you will just have to make these to find out for yourself!
The base of the bars are made with whole wheat pastry flour and hearty oats. Automatically becomes a health food right? Which means it’s totally sane to eat these at all hours of the day to fulfill your sweet tooth + dietary needs at the same time. Yay! Make sure to use all natural peanut butter, or almond butter too for those healthy fats! I also recommend Trader Joe’s Super Fruit Spread for the “jelly” part of this recipe. There is only white grape juice used to sweeten it and contains yummy ingredients like cherries and blueberries!
These were a HIT with my family and probably one of my favorite crumble bar yet! They are healthy and satisfy a dessert craving. My favorite kind of recipe! They will probably last you merely 48 hours if you’re lucky…
PB&J Oatmeal Crumble Bars
Ingredients
Base + Crumble topping
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 cup raw oats
- 1/2 cup raw cane sugar
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 1/4 cup peanut butter, slightly melted
- Sea Salt to taste
PB&J; Filling
- 3/4 cup Fruit Spread (Superfruit or blueberry)
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 Degrees. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Combine oats, flour, sugar, peanut butter, and canola oil in a bowl. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon until well combined.
- Set aside 1/2 cup cup of the oat mixture. Spread the rest evenly into an 8×8 baking pan.
- Mix together fruit spread and blueberries then layer over oat mixture evenly. Swirl in your peanut butter over the fruit layer.
- Crumble remaining oat mixture over top of of the PB&J; layer. Lightly press down with a wooden spoon or spatula. Bake for 25-30 minutes until slightly brown on top. Cool completely before cutting into squares.
Notes
Makes 9 large squares. You can cut them into small squares as well so they last longer!
These stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature up to three days. Then transfer to the fridge. They taste good cold and warmed up!