Serve these Blackberry Crumble Bars for a healthy dessert everyone will love! Make them with fresh or frozen blackberries and serve them for a party or a kid-friendly evening treat.
Hi friends!
Allow me to introduce you to this beautiful dessert! This recipe was actually published on my blog way back in like 2011 but a couple years ago I took it down because the photos were terrible. Believe it or not, these have actually been one of my favorite desserts to make at Christmas for many years because you can easily use frozen blackberries and they’re a fun way to add a little twist to more traditional cookie trays.
They’ve been on my list to reshoot for years and I’ve never gotten around to it. Until now. A couple weekends ago we went blackberry and peach picking and came home with A LOT of blackberries. I immediately thought of these bars and after testing them out with fresh blackberries and even successfully tweaking the recipe to make it a bit healthier, I knew it was time to share them with you guys!
Blackberry Crumble Bars
We gobbled up this most recent batch last week, enjoying them for dessert and even for an occasional afternoon snack. They do require a little bit of advance preparation because you need to give them blackberry chia jam time to cool and thicken, but making both the jam and the bars themselves is quite simple.
Here’s how you make them:
PrintBlackberry Crumble Bars
Serve these Blackberry Crumble Bars for a healthy dessert everyone will love! Make them with fresh or frozen blackberries and serve them for a party or a kid-friendly evening treat.
- Yield: Makes 12-16 servings
Ingredients
- 3 cups fresh (or frozen) blackberries
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup, optional
- 3 Tbsp chia seeds
- 8 Tbsp butter, melted
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups rolled oats, divided
- 1.5 cups blackberry jam
Instructions
Place blackberries (and maple syrup if using) in a saucepan over medium heat.
Smash blackberries and bring mixture to a boil.
Add chia seeds, reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Transfer jam to a bowl and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
When ready to make the bars, combine melted butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well.
Add flour, baking soda and 1.5 cups oats and stir to combine.
Press 2/3 of the mixture into a 9×9 pan (greased or lined with parchment paper).
Add remaining 1/2 cup oats to remaining 1/3 of the mixture and mix well.
Spread 1.5 cups of the chia jam you made earlier over the mixture in the pan.
Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the top.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Let cool before cutting.
Notes
I store these in the fridge!
If your blackberries are on the sweeter side, you don’t need to add the maple syrup. I only added it because mine were pretty tart.
Aren’t they pretty!? I haven’t done it, but you could easily substitute your favorite berry if you’re not a fan of blackberries. Strawberries would be delicious!
Let’s chat:
Have you been to any you-pick farms this summer? What’s your favorite thing to pick?
Enjoy!
–Lindsay–
Question: Is it possible to add some protein powder in the recipe, so I can take these with me at the gym? They look (and also bet they taste) very good, so why not combine best of both worlds? Looking forward to an answer!
i haven’t done much baking with protein powders so i’m not totally sure…but you could start by replacing maybe 1/4 cup of the flour with a scoop of protein powder and see how they hold up?
Oh yum! Where did you go picking? I have failed to go at all this year and it pains me a little cause I love doing it so much. And I have no eaten nearly enough peaches or blackberries before they disappear again.
we went to Lynds Blue Frog farm or something like that. it’s in johnstown…not the same place where you pick apples. it was awesome. not crowded at all!
Awesome! Unfortunately I just checked and they are done u-picking 🙁 here’s to next summer.
These look so good! I need to buy some berries and try these out 🙂 For me nothing goes better together than berries and summer nights.
We took our boys blueberry picking earlier this summer. They both loved it, of course since they are blueberry fiends. It was great to go to the farm and help our 3 year old understand more about where food comes from. He was already curious about farmers from getting our weekly “veggie box” (CSA). Our trip was months ago and he’ll still occasionally say “Talk about who picks blueberries?” And want me to respond, Farmers, and us!
Yummy! Such a healthy, easy and palatable treat, Lindsay! Do you use a homemade blackberry jam?
Would these still turn out ok if I didn’t use chia seeds? I have every other ingredient and would hate to have to run to the store (15 min one way) but if it’s a must I will wait till I have all the said ingredients.
Thank you in advance!
The chia seeds are important in this. They help the jam thicken up. Without them the blackberry mixture would probably be a bit too runny. You could try searching for recipes for homemade jam without chia seeds and follow their instructions to make it and then use that to make the bars!