Bright, sweet and creamy, these white chocolate cranberry oat bars are perfect for snacking. Oatmeal cookie crust with creamy white chocolate and dried cranberry filling. This is a one-bowl recipe!
Looking for more cranberry snack recipes! Try these: Cranberry and Cashew Breakfast Cookies or these Cranberry and Ginger Cookies.
These sweet bars will remind you of white chocolate cranberry oat bars you get from Starbucks!
The filling is creamy and sweet, made with sour cream it is reminiscent of cheesecake, but not quite so heavy.
These bars are lightly scented with orange -- orange and cranberries work so well together. I've used both the zest and the juice of the orange in this recipe.
Just one bowl! These cranberry oat bars are easy to throw together and freeze beautifully. So make a batch so you have some on hand when you need a sweet treat.
The ingredients needed for Cranberry Oat Bars
- Oatmeal, use large flaked oats or old-fashioned oats for best results
- All-purpose flour, you can use whole wheat all-purpose flour as well.
- One large navel orange. Grate the zest first and set aside. You will need some of the juice for the crust and the zest in the filling.
- Dried cranberries or dried cherries. Cherries work nicely as well. ¾ cup of dried fruit
- White chocolate chips, about ¾ cup
- Sour cream for the filling. I've also used full-fat greek style yogurt and obtained similar results. Though I do prefer sour cream here.
How to make this one-bowl treat
Mix the crust ingredients in a large bowl - oats, brown sugar, flour, brown sugar, a pinch of salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Add in a splash of orange juice and mix until you get a crumbly mixture that sticks together when you press it.
Press about half of this mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan in a thin layer. This layer will be relatively thin, but make sure the entire bottom of the
Reserve about 1 cup of the oatmeal mixture. Set this aside. This will be the topping.
In the same bowl as you mixed the crust, mix the filling ingredients. Just stir these together until well combined and creamy - cranberries, white chocolate, sour cream, sugar, flour, vanilla, orange zest and one egg white.
Pour the filling over the bottom crust in the 9x13 baking pan.
Crumble the reserved crust mixture over top of the filling.
Bake in a 325 oven for 40-45 minutes.
Storage and serving
These bars are great packed in lunches or after school. They are perfect on dessert tables or bake sales. Given they are nut-free, they are school safe :).
If packing in lunches or serving as an after-school snack I might be generous and cut the batch into 16 large bars. For dessert tables, potlucks or parties I will cut into smaller cookie-sized pieces, in which case you can easily get 32 pieces from a tray.
These oat bars will keep for 3-4 days in an airtight container and refrigerated. Or these can be frozen. Frozen, these cranberry and white chocolate bars will keep for several months. Thaw at room temperature for about an hour before serving.
Variations
Feel free to mix and match any of the following into the filling. Just be sure you have about 1-½ cups in total.
- White chocolate
- Dried cranberry
- Dried cherries
- Walnuts, pecans or almonds
- Dark or milk chocolate chips
Cranberry Oatmeal Bar Cookies with White Chocolate
Required equipment
- 9x13 cake pan or baking dish
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1-½ cups oatmeal use large flaked oats
- 1-¼ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ cups brown sugar lightly packed
- 6 tablespoons butter melted and cooled
- ¼ cup orange juice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
For the filling:
- ¾ cup white chocolate chips
- ¾ cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup sour cream
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg white lightly beaten
- zest from one large orange
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 and spray an 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Mix oatmeal through baking soda in a large bowl. Stir to mix well. Add butter and orange juice and mix with your hands to form a crumbly mixture. Reserve about 1 cup to use as the topping and press the remaining mixture into the baking dish to form a crust. Set aside.
- Prepare the filling: mix all ingredients together in a medium-sized bowl and spread on top of the crust. Sprinkle the reserved oatmeal mixture on top of the white chocolate and cranberries as evenly as possible. There will be gaps in the topping, but this is okay.
- Bake in 325 degree oven for 35-40 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned Cool completely before cuting into 24-32 pieces.
Notes
My favourite 9x13 baking pan is this Cake Boss brand baking pan I picked up at Canadian Tire. I think the quilted bottom is its magic.
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