Breakfast Jam Bars

Breakfast Jam Bars

If you enjoy having a sweet treat for breakfast like a rich muffin or donut, replace your habit with these breakfast jam bars.  They will satisfy any sugar craving and give your body a healthy morning sugar boost.

Ingredients:
1 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1 1/2 cups of white flour
2/3 cup of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup of jam

Directions:

1.) Preheat your oven to 350 degree

2.) Spray cooking spray inside a 9 inch square cake pan. Spraying your pan with cooking spray is just incase your jam leaks outside the parchment paper.  It is a tough thing to get off your cake pans.

3.) Line the cake pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil, the foil should extend over the sides of the cake pan.Use the foil or paper will make lifting the bars out of the pan easier after they are cool.  When fitting the foil or paper it doesn’t matter if the edges are off and don’t fit well. When you press the mixture down in a later step, the edges will work themselves out.

3.) Measure out all the dry ingredients. Reserving the jam and butter until later steps.

4.) Hunk the butter into small chunks and then cut it into the mixture. I start cutting the butter in using two knives and then switch the gloved hands to throughly mix in the butter.

5.) The end result for the mixture will be crumbly, but it will not hold a true shape; it will be moist and hold together only when you pack it in your hands.

6.) Remove 1 1/2 cups of the crumb mixture for later.

7.) Press remaining mixture firmly into the 9 inch square pan.

8.) This is a good time to use your freezer jam .  I’ve tried strawberry and raspberry thus far, both are excellent choices. Spread the jam out to almost the edge of the crust. Leaving a little room at the edge to seal the filling with the top layer.

9.) Top the jam with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of crumb mixture that you had reserved. Be sure to get the mixture all the way out to the edges. For the top crumb mixture, you don’t have to press this layer down flat. Just sprinkle it over the jam filling.

10.) Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, until golden brown.

11.) Cool completely. Lift the bars out of pan after cooling and cut. I use a pizza cutter to cut the bars into rows and then cut the rows in half.

12.) Wrap the bars in plastic wrap for easy travel purposes. A quick note on wrapping.  They will seem crumbly.  No worries!  A few hours in the fridge and they will firmly set.

Storage:

I store the bars in a plastic container in the refrigerator for everyone to grab one on their way out the door in the morning. The bars can be easily tossed into lunch boxes and in the glovebox of your car for a quick snack on road trips.

I haven’t tried freezing them yet.  I’m afraid that the mixture would retain too much moisture and the bars would fall apart as they thawed out.  If you happen to freeze them, leave a comment. I’d love to hear about your experience.

Enjoy!