Strawberry Breakfast Bars

If you love breakfast bars then these Strawberry Breakfast Bars are going to thrill you! They are the perfect breakfast or snack to eat when you are in a hurry or need eat on the run. Before I go into the details of them I have to tell you about what inspired me to make them.

My sister-in-law asked me if I had a recipe for breakfast bars last week because she was tired of buying her kids the ones at the store. I had been thinking of creating a breakfast bar lately and now I had a great reason to do it.

Is it just me or are there about a million granola bars out there now? I was walking down the cereal aisle over the weekend and one whole side was full of different kinds of granola/cereal/breakfast bars. I remember the days when your only choices were the Chewy granola bars, Nutri Grain Bars, and Pop Tarts. Well those obviously all still exist, except now they each have about 100 different flavors and variations of the bars. On top of that there are now about 10 more brands of bars who each have 100 different flavors, how the heck are you ever supposed to decide which one to try!! Well I started picking up a few boxes of ones that looked pretty good and checked out the nutrition label. It’s amazing how much sugar, calories, fat, and crap you can’t pronounce are in these bars. Oh hey lets have a serving of oligofructose, alpha tocopherol acetate, and top it off with some blue 2 lake for coloring…yum. Now I understand that these bars are convenient and it’s a lot easier to just grab a box than consider making your own, but after reading all of the ingredients and looking at how much sugar was in them I decided it was worth the time to make my own and start my day off eating something I could feel good about.

To make the bars I started by combining whole wheat flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon in my food processor. I pulsed them together until the oats were broken up and the consistency of the flour. I then added the cold cubed butter, Greek yogurt, and vanilla extract. I pulsed it again until it looked like large crumbs. I then drizzled in 2-3 tablespoons of ice cold water until the dough came together. I split the dough in half and pressed half of it into the bottom of an 8×8 baking pan sprayed with cooking spray and lined with foil. Next I spread about 1/3 cup of my Easy Strawberry Jam (you can use whatever jam you prefer) on top of the dough. I took the remaining dough and broke it into pieces and pressed it on top of the jam layer. I baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the edges were golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle came out clean. After the bars were cooled I cut them into 8 pieces. The Strawberry Breakfast Bars were perfect! They weren’t too sweet, don’t go into this thinking you are making dessert. They had a nice nutty flavor thanks to the oats and whole wheat flour and I found them to be a perfectly filling snack. If I were having this for breakfast I would probably need some protein with it, but for kids they are just the right size. The next time you are at the store walk past the aisle overflowing with sugary, strange ingredient filled granola bars, head to the baking aisle instead to grab some oats and whole wheat flour so you can make your own personalized, healthier, and better tasting Strawberry Breakfast Bars!

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Strawberry Breakfast Bars

Yield: 8 bars

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 22 minutes

Total Time: 37 minutes

A healthier and tastier alternative to the store bought granola bars!

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Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 t. kosher salt
• 1/2 t. cinnamon
• 4 T. cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 3 T. plain non fat Greek yogurt
• 1 t. vanilla extract (optional)
• 2-3 T. ice cold water
• 1/3-1/2 cup strawberry jam or jam of choice

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line an 8x8 baking pan with foil and spray it with cooking spray.
3. In a food processor pulse together the flour, oats, sugar, salt, and cinnamon until the oats are broken up and the consistency of the flour.
4. Add in the cold cubed butter, Greek yogurt, and vanilla extract.
5. Pulse again until it is the consistency of coarse crumbs.
6. Slowly add in the ice water a tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together.
7. Press half of the dough into the bottom of the lined baking pan, until it is in a single even layer.
8. Spread the jam over the dough.
9. Break up the remainder of the dough into pieces and press them down on top of the jam.
10. Bake the bars at 350 degrees in the middle rack of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
11. Cool the bars on a wire rack and then cut them into 8 pieces.
12. The bars can be stored for up to 2 days in an airtight container on the counter or refrigerated for up to a week.

Notes

If you don't have a food processor you can pulse the oats in a blender until they become flour like in consistency or you can buy oat flour.

The remainder of the dough for the topping will not completely cover the bars, don't worry about it and break it into pieces pressing them until you can get most of it covered.

If you want your bars sweeter use 1/2 a cup of jam instead of 1/3 cup.

This recipe was adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod