I am in love with these crumble bars and they are perfect for any spring or summer brunch or dessert! The best part of a fruit crumble is that buttery oat crumble topping and that’s why I love a crumble bar – you get a much higher ratio of crumble to fruit! It starts with a layer of cookie-like crust, followed by a jammy, slightly tart fruit filling, and topped with a crisp, crumbly, buttery topping.
The crust/crumble are made from ground up nuts and oats mixed with butter and a touch of maple syrup and coconut sugar, making these bars packed with fiber and not loaded with sugar. I like them best for dessert topped with whipped cream, but they are delicious on their own, served with vanilla ice cream, or topped with Greek yogurt for a breakfast treat.
P.S. These need to cool completely before slicing, so make them first thing in the morning or a day ahead!
Ingredient highlight
Strawberries! These juicy late spring, early summer fruits are packed with fiber, potassium, folate, and vitamin C. They get their red color from anthocyanin, a potent group of antioxidants and also contain a high amount of phenolic antioxidants. They’re also super hydrating because they contain electrolytes and are 91% water.
Servings 12 bars or 24 mini bars
Prep Time 20 minutes 
Cook Time 55 minutes Ingredients
For the crust:
- 8 tbsp butter, melted
- 3 tbsp (57g) maple syrup
- 2 tbsp (20g) coconut sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (171g) rolled oats
- 1 ¼ cup (184g) almonds
- 1 ¼ cup (141g) walnuts
- ½ tsp kosher salt
For the filling:
- 16-24 oz strawberries, chopped or quartered (about 3-4 cups)*
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- Zest and juice from 1 lemon (about 3 tbsp juice)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch, tapioca starch, or arrowroot starch
To serve:
- Whipped cream, whipped yogurt, yogurt, or vanilla bean ice cream (optional)
- Powdered sugar (optional)
- *Use more for a more fruit-heavy bar or less for a thinner layer of fruit.
- *I’m usually a big fan of frozen fruit but I find frozen strawberries to have no flavor, so opt for fresh! If you use 1 lb strawberries, you could add in a cup of frozen raspberries or other fruit. See substitutions for other fruit ideas.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven 350F. Line a standard 8×8 or 9×9-inch baking dish with parchment paper.
- To a large bowl, add the butter, maple, sugar, and vanilla and stir until combined.
- To a high-speed blender or food processor, add the oats and nuts. Blend into a coarse meal, scraping under the blade as needed. Transfer to the bowl. Add the salt and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Reserve 1 cup of the crust to use for topping later. Transfer the rest into the prepared baking dish and spread it out into one even, compact layer. Bake for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, to a medium pot over medium heat, add the strawberries, maple, lemon zest and juice, and starch of choice and stir to combine. Let it cook, stirring often, until it starts to bubble loudly, then reduce the heat down to low and simmer gently for about 2-4 minutes, stirring often, or until the strawberries have softened/broken down and become more jammy-like in texture.
- Transfer the strawberries to the baking dish and spread out over the crust. Crumble the reserved crust evenly on top. Bake for 45 minutes or until the crumble topping is dark golden brown in spots (better to over than underbake this, you just don’t want the tops to burn or get too dark).
- Let it cool completely before slicing into bars, otherwise they will not hold together. To speed it along, I like to let it cool at room temp for 10-20 minutes, then transfer it to the fridge to cool off for 2-3 hours.
- Once they’ve cooled, you can dust them with some powdered sugar, if you’d like. Slice and serve cold or at room temp. Enjoy the bars on their own or make it more dessert-like and top with some whipped cream, whipped yogurt, or vanilla ice cream.
Items you can prep ahead (optional)
- Blend up the nuts/oats + make the crumble/crust mixture
- Chop or quarter 16-24 oz strawberries (about 3-4 cups)
- Cook the strawberry mixture
- Assemble and bake the bars
Substitutions:
- To make vegan, use vegan butter or substitute with 6 tbsp virgin coconut oil.
- To make nut-free, replace the nuts with 3 cups pumpkin seeds.
- Use another fruit in place of strawberries or use a combination – raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, peaches, etc…You could even make these with apples or pears in the fall.
- If you can find rhubarb, you can replace up to 1 cup of the strawberries with rhubarb. You’ll want to increase the maple syrup in the fruit mixture to 3 tablespoons (or until it tastes sweet enough for you), and cook the mixture until the rhubarb softens.
Storage:
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days or freeze for up to 2 months.
Leftovers + Repurposing:
- I like these best cold out of the fridge. You can also pop them in the microwave if you’d prefer room temp or a bit warm.
- Top with Greek yogurt for breakfast!
- Chop up the bars and use them to top ice cream or make your own ice cream and mix the chunks into it.
- Blend 1 bar with milk in the blender for a milkshake!
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