This Celebrated Life

Autumn is almost here, can you feel it? It’s getting dark earlier, and I’m starting to feel a slight shift in the air. As we start to look toward the coming season, I am (naturally) thinking of all the fall recipes! Starting with this delicious savory apple gruyere galette. This is the perfect fall brunch recipe! We’re talking sweet apples, salty gruyere cheese, all wrapped up in a buttery crust. So let’s get fall baking!

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Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

posted on : August 27, 2020 posted by : Kirsten Bell 2 Comments

Anyone else excited for fall, but still holding onto the final days of summer? (Me too!) Fall is my favorite season, but I really love the fresh fruit of summer! Luckily, we still have plenty of fresh, juicy strawberries in the store – perfect for these super easy, super delicious strawberry oatmeal bars. This easy dessert is made with an oatmeal crust that doubles as a topping, strawberry preserves, and fresh strawberries. Added bonus? The vanilla glaze. Drooling? You should be!

Now I feel like it’s my duty to tell you that these strawberry oatmeal bars are addicting. The deep jammy flavor of the preserves with the bright fresh strawberries is so delicious, especially with the lightly spiced oatmeal. The vanilla glaze is the cherry on the top. Just a little extra sweetness, but with warm vanilla flavor. I used this vanilla bean paste, which I highly recommend! But you can also just use vanilla extract.

How To Make Strawberry Oatmeal Bars:

Start by making the oatmeal crust/topping. Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and then press half of it into a greased 8×8 baking dish.
In another mixing bowl (I love this mixing bowl set), combine all the filling ingredients except the strawberry preserves. Spread the strawberry preserves over the crust. Top with filling, and sprinkle the other half of the oatmeal mixture on top.
Bake 35-40 minutes!
Stir together the glaze, and drizzle over the cooled bars. Serve!

Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review

Author: Kirsten Bell
Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 35 Minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes
Yield: 12 Bars 1x
Category: Dessert
Method: Baking

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Description

Fruit, jammy and delicious – these strawberry oatmeal bars are a fun and easy summer afternoon snack or dessert!

Ingredients

Scale

For The Crust:

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats

For The Strawberry Filling:

1/2 cup strawberry preserves

3 cups sliced fresh strawberries

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Zest of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons cornstarch

For The Vanilla Bean Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or double the extract)

2 teaspoons whole milk

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8×8 baking dish, and line with parchment paper on the bottom and up the sides of the pan so there’s an overhang. This will make the bars easy to remove from the pan!

Melt the butter in a large mixing bowl, and then stir in the vanilla extract. Add the brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir until combined, and then add the flour and oats , stirring until no streaks of flour remain. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the pan.

Combine all the filling ingredients in a medium mixing bowl except for the strawberry preserves. Spoon the strawberry preserves over the crust, and then top with the filling. Sprinkle the other half of the crust over the fruit filling, and pat lightly. Bake for 35-40 minutes, and cool completely.

Stir together the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste and milk. Drizzle over the bars, and serve!

Tools Used To Make Strawberry Oatmeal Bars:

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Peach Cobbler Muffins

posted on : August 20, 2020 posted by : Kirsten Bell 1 Comment

Peach cobbler muffins! Sweet, buttery and soft, and loaded with delicious cinnamon brown sugar streusel. Everything you love about peach cobbler, in super easy muffin form. Extra bonus? They’re so easy to make! Almost a one bowl recipe, if you don’t count the streusel!

Cobblers have a special place in my heart. As a kid we would help my mom pick buckets and buckets of fresh berries from the woods down the street from our house, and would dream the whole time of the cobbler we’d have that night. I mean, is there anything better?

With the cinnamon and nutmeg baked into the muffins, and the cinnamon brown sugar streusel on top, every bite brings me back to delicious cobbler. And I love that these are so quick – seriously a perfect breakfast or brunch recipe!

Key Ingredients In Peach Cobbler Muffins:

Frozen Peaches! You saw that one coming, didn’t you? Keep them frozen, don’t thaw them! You can use fresh peaches too, you’ll just need to reduce the cooking time by a few minutes since the muffins won’t be as cold when they go into the oven. Canned or jarred peaches don’t work because the juice they’re stored in makes the muffins separate.
Salted butter! I love using Organic Valley Salted Butter – it’s pretty much the only butter I use for my baking! For the muffins we use it melted in the muffins, and cold in the streusel. So dang delicious!
Organic Valley Whole Fat Vanilla Yogurt and Whole Fat Milk. I love the extra hint of vanilla flavor from the yogurt! It’s important to use whole fat yogurt and milk to keep the muffins super moist.
Brown Sugar! I loooove baking with brown sugar! It adds more moisture than white sugar, and has such a delicious molasses-like flavor. So good! Brown sugar is pretty traditional in cobbler, so it’s used in both the peach cobbler muffins and the streusel.