Easy Berry Crumb Breakfast Bars
A healthy breakfast on the go, without any plastic wrappers!
Whether you’re headed to the office or about to drop the kids off at school, breakfast on the go is just a part of life sometimes. We’ve definitely explored every breakfast bar option on the grocery shelves, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a breakfast bar option that didn’t include plastic wrappers with ingredients that you can feel good about? Well, we have the recipe for you then! These breakfast bars (adapted from Smitten Kitchen) are gluten free, refined sugar free, and packed with oats and nuts to give you fuel for the day. These bars are kid tested and approved. In our experience they will be begging for them not only at breakfast time, but at snack time too!
The best part is that you can bake up a batch and you’ll have breakfast for the entire family for the week. Or better yet, double up the recipe and freeze a batch for an on the go option any time. We used blackberries in this recipe, but feel free to use raspberries too! You could even try figs or apples too, which would be perfect for the fall.
Ingredients
For the crust and the crumb topping
- 3/4 cup oat flour*
- ½ cup sweet rice flour
- ¼ cup tapioca flour
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup or honey
- 1 ¼ cup rolled oats
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
- Optional: ½ cup of chopped almonds or pecans or walnuts
For the berry filling
- ¼ cup coconut sugar
- 1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 Tbsp tapioca flour
- 1 lb blackberries or raspberries
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9″ by 13″ inch baking pan with parchment paper. Cut one piece of parchment paper to 9″ wide and place it going the length of the pan, letting it cover the sides. Then cut another piece of parchment paper 13″ wide and place it going the opposite way as the first piece, letting it go up the sides as well. Now you have a parchment paper sling that will help you remove the bars from the pan easily.
- Put the flours, coconut sugar, maple syrup, oats, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine. Then add the butter and pulse until large and loose crumbs form. Reserve 1 ½ cups for the crumb topping and set aside.
- Scoop the rest of the mixture into the pan and use your hands or the bottom of a measuring cup to pack down the crust into an even layer. Bake the crust until lightly golden, about 15 minutes.
- In the meantime, combine the berries, coconut sugar, lemon zest, tapioca starch, cinnamon, and lemon juice into a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat. Use a wooden spoon to help burst the berries, stirring so that the mixture doesn’t burn. Cook until the mixture has thickened, about 5-10 minutes depending on how juicy your berries are. You want the filling to be pourable but thick.
- Once the crust comes out of the oven, let it cool for about 5 minutes. Spread the berry filling over the top of the crust. Mix the ½ cup of chopped nuts with the remaining 1 ½ cup crust mixture if using nuts. Then sprinkle on top of the berry filling.
- Bake the bars for about 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. The filling should be bubbling and have thickened even more.
- Let the bars cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then use the parchment paper sides to lift the bars out of the pan and let them cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into portions and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a few days.
- If you want to freeze a batch, place the cut pieces on a cookie sheet and freeze. Then put the frozen bars into a freezer bag or container. Take a frozen piece out overnight to defrost in the fridge, or let thaw for 20 minutes on the counter. (In the summer, they also taste pretty good frozen too!)
* Instead of the oat, sweet rice, and tapioca flours, you can substitute 1 ½ cup gluten free flour or all purpose flour.