Healthy Raspberry Oatmeal Bars made with juicy fresh raspberries, sweetened with honey and a touch of brown sugar, and gluten free oats. These bars are the perfect treat that everyone will love!

this recipe

Healthy Raspberry Oatmeal Bars with Fresh Raspberries

These healthy raspberry oatmeal bars are a delicious treat made with real food ingredients that I know you’ll love. These gluten-free bars have the perfect cookie crust and crumb topping that is made with almond flour, gluten-free rolled oats, and a touch of brown sugar.

The filling is made with fresh raspberries and just a touch of honey for sweetness. The best part is that these bars won’t take you a lot of time to make and you can easily modify them to be vegan if needed.

This recipe is gluten free and absolutely delicious. I know you’ll love it!

Gluten Free Cookie Crust Ingredients

Any great oatmeal bar starts with a delicious crust and the base of these delicious raspberry oatmeal bars is a simple 4-ingredient crust. The recipe for this crust also doubles as the topping, which means here’s no need to spend any extra time making a separate crumb topping for these bars!

Gluten Free Rolled Oats: Use certified gluten free if you are particularly concerned about making sure that these bars are certified gluten free.

Almond Flour: Use a blanched almond flour like this one for the best results

Butter: Dice the butter in small cubes before adding it to the mixing bowl to make combining the crust ingredients easier.

Brown Sugar: Dark brown sugar gives the crust and crumb topping just the right amount of sweetness. You could also sub coconut sugar if you prefer.

Fresh Raspberry Filling Ingredients

Raspberries: Pick juicy fresh raspberries for the best raspberry filling.

Honey: This adds the perfect touch of sweetness to the raspberry jam. Feel to use maple syrup instead of honey if you prefer.

Lemon Juice: Lemon juice adds a pop freshness and amplifies the raspberry flavor even more. If you want even more lemon flavor, you can add a little lemon zest to the jam.

Arrowroot Starch: Arrowroot starch thickens the raspberry jam and gets it to the perfect consistency. If you don’t have arrowroot you can use cornstarch instead.

Vanilla Extract: You can’t have any type of oatmeal bar without vanilla. Just one teaspoon adds so much flavor!

How to Make Healthy Raspberry Oatmeal Bars

Step One: The first step is to make the crust and crumble topping for the bars. To do this, add the almond flour, gluten free oats, brown sugar, and diced butter to a mixing bowl. Use your hands to work the butter into the flour, oats, and brown sugar until a dough like consistency forms.

Press two-thirds of the dough into a 8×8 baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper. Use your fingers to press the dough into an even layer. Once the crust has been pressed into the pan, place it in a 350 degree oven and bake for fifteen minutes. When the crust has finished baking, remove it from the oven and set aside.

Step Two: Next, it’s time to make the raspberry jam filling. Add the raspberries, vanilla extract, and honey to a medium saucepan. Use the back of a wooden spoon to mash the raspberries a bit. This will help to break them down and release their juices. Bring the raspberry mixture to a boil and let it boil for 5-7 minutes while constantly stirring.

Once the raspberries have all broken down and become a deeper color, make the slurry to thicken the jam. To make the slurry, whisk together the lemon juice and arrowroot starch in a small bowl until the arrowroot is completely dissolved. Remove the raspberries from the heat and then stir in the slurry. A thickened raspberry jam should form.

Step Three: Once the jam is done, pour it over the baked crust. Sprinkle the bars with the remaining one-third of the crumb topping. Bake the bars at 350 degrees for twenty to twenty-five minutes until the top is golden brown and the raspberry jam is bubbling around the edges.

Step Four: The last step in making these bars is maybe the hardest – letting the bars cool. For the best results, you want the bars to come to a complete cool before slicing. Once they are cool, use a sharp knife to slice the bars and enjoy!

Tips and Tricks for the Best Gluten Free Raspberry Oatmeal Bars

• Use parchment paper. Grease the pan a bit before adding the parchment paper to help the parchment paper stick to the bottom of the pan so it won’t slip around while you are pressing in the crust.
• Let the bars come to a complete cool before slicing. It will be super tempting to cut these bars before they come to a complete cool, but to get the best results you will need to let them come to a complete cool before slicing. To help speed up the process you can stick the bars in the fridge while they cool.
• Use a sharp knife to cut the bars. A sharp knife will help you make a clean cut and get through the thick bottom layer of crust.
• Store the bars in the fridge. There is a good chance that these bars will not even last that long, but just in case you have any leftovers, store them in the fridge for safe keeping.

Can I Use Frozen Raspberries For The Filling?

Yes! If you are using frozen raspberries, thaw them completely before using and then drain any extra liquid before adding them to the pan. If your jam filling does not seem to thicken up for some reason, add an extra teaspoon of arrowroot starch.

Can I Make These Bars Dairy Free?

Yes! You can substitute coconut oil for the butter in this recipe. For the best results, make sure the coconut oil is not melted so you can properly work the oil into the oats and almond flour and create the crust.

Will Other Fruits Work?

You can definitely give it a try! If you are thinking of using strawberries, you can follow this recipe for Strawberry Oatmeal Crumb Bars. If you are interested in using blueberries, try these Blueberry Pie Bars! Apples will likely work, but because apples do not have as much moisture in them as berries, you may not need to add as much cornstarch or cook them as long to make the jam.

I Don’t Have Almond Flour – What Else Can I Use?

I have only personally tested these bars with almond flour and oats but my suggestion would be to substitute either oat flour or your favorite gluten free flour blend in place of almond flour.

I hope you love this cozy cinnamon sugar pumpkin bread! I know it will quickly become a favorite. If you make this recipe, please leave a comment and rate the recipe below so others know how you liked it! xo

More Delicious Recipes to Love

Healthy Key Lime Pie Bars

Healthy Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

No Bake Lemon Blueberry Cheesecake Bars

Blueberry Pie Bars

Gluten Free Strawberry Crisp

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Bars