Cranberry Oatmeal Bars

These vegan cranberry oatmeal bars feature sweet and tangy cranberry jam between layers of oatmeal crust and crumble.

Ingredient Notes

• Cranberries: This recipe calls for whole, fresh or frozen cranberries. Do not use dried cranberries.
• Chia seeds: Chia seeds are needed to thicken the cranberry jam. If you’re not using chia seeds, you can swap them for 1 tbsp cornstarch.
• Flour: I used whole wheat flour in this recipe and have not tested any other flour, however, it should work just fine with a gluten-free flour blend such as Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour. You could also use the crust/crumble recipe from these gluten-free blueberry crumble bars or gluten-free strawberry oatmeal bars.
• Sweetener: I used organic cane sugar in this recipe but any kind of dry granular sweeteners, such as brown sugar, coconut sugar, demerara or turbinado sugar works. To reduce the sugar in the recipe, you could use monk fruit sweetener.
• Oats: Rolled (old-fashioned) oats are best here but you could use quick oats in a pinch.
• Lemon: Adds a bit of tanginess to the cranberry jam. Fresh lemon juice is best! You could also swap it for orange juice.
• Maple Syrup: Since the cranberries are quite tart, a little sweetness helps to balance them out. You can use maple syrup or sugar.
• Coconut Oil: This is needed for the oatmeal crust and crumble layers. It can be substituted with vegan butter or regular butter.

Step-by-Step Instructions

There are two parts to these bars: the cranberry jam and the oat crumble. Let’s go through how to make each and assemble them into bars.

The full recipe can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post. This section provides an overview of the steps with photos for visual reference.

Make the Cranberry Filling

Add the cranberries, maple syrup, lemon juice and chia seeds to a small saucepan on the stovetop.

Bring the mixture to a gentle boil while stirring, then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring and mashing for 6-7 minutes until it’s thick and has a jam-like consistency.

Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit while you prepare the crust and crumble.

Make the Oatmeal Crust

At this point, preheat the oven to 350 F and prepare a baking pan with a light coating of butter, oil or cooking spray or line with parchment paper.

Add the oats, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar to a large mixing bowl and mix to combine and break up any clumps.

Add the melted coconut oil, lemon juice and non-dairy milk, starting with 3 tbsp. Mix it up into a crumbly dough, adding more almond milk as needed until you can press the dough together in your fingers.

The consistency should be crumbly but moist enough to start sticking together. It shouldn’t be overly wet or as wet as batter or cookie dough.

Assemble the Bars

Reserve roughly 2/3 cup of the crumble mixture then press the rest of it into the bottom of the baking pan.

Add the cranberry jam and spread into an even layer.

Sprinkle the remaining crumble mixture over the jam layer.

Bake & Cool

Bake the bars for 35 minutes then let them cool completely in the pan. Letting them cool is important otherwise they’ll be crumbly.

Once they’ve cooled, slice them into 16 squares and enjoy! If you used parchment paper, you can lift them out of the pan, if not, slice them in the pan and carefully remove them one by one with a fork or small spatula.

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