A friend gave us a ton of apricots, so I went on the search for recipes to use them in. I found this great little recipe for Fruit Oatmeal Cookie Bars, which I then proceeded to "healthify" so that I could use them as snacks as opposed to a dessert. What I didn't expect was to create this nice little gem of a recipe that my family absolutely adored! These snack squares were gone in just a couple days and I found myself wishing I had even more apricot to make them again.
If you don't have apricot puree, it would be fabulous with a fresh blueberry puree, strawberry or even peach puree. Homemade jam would be great too, although it would increase the sugar content of the bars.
Oatmeal Apricot Squares
Adapted from Fruit Oatmeal Cookie Bars
- 1/2 cup coconut oil {room temp}
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup whole-wheat flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
- 3/4 cup pureed fruit {I obviously used apricots} or jam
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
Combine coconut oil, brown sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and rolled oats. Mix with a Kitchenaid or hand mixer until coarse crumbles form.
Press 2 cups of the mixture into the bottom of the 9x13 pan.
Spoon the fruit puree over the top. Try and spread it around as evenly as possible- no need to be perfect here. Once the fruit touches the oat mixture, if you try and spread it a lot it mixes the two, which you don't want. You want it layered. Sp do your best to spread the fruit around as evenly as possible as you're adding it to the pan.
Spread the remaining oatmeal mixture over the top of the fruit.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-35 minutes, until edges of oatmeal crust are beginning to brown.
Cool completely.
Optional Frosting Drizzle: Combine 1 TBSP melted butter with about 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 TBSP milk. Whisk until smooth. Transfer to a plastic baggie and cut the corner. Drizzle across cooled bars.
Cut into squares. Enjoy for an afternoon snack or with fruit for breakfast!
