Red & Blue Oatmeal Bars 1

Red & Blue Oatmeal Bars
By Marci Sorce of Sit Drink Eat

It was another Sunday morning at the Ramsey Farmers Market.  Here is what I got:

After my produce and I had this little photo shoot, we had lots of fun slicing, dicing, blending, chopping, baking –  you name it.  I spent the better part of the day concocting all sorts of yumminess from these beautiful ingredients.

Check out the flowers – ain’t they gorgeous? And how about those beautiful squash blossoms and purple basil?  I also bought garlic ramps, tomatillos, tomatoes, potatoes, Italian hot and cherry peppers, a nice crusty Semolina bread, fresh mozzarella and look at the color on these purple scallions……..

They would be beautiful in a salad, stir fry, vinaigrette, just about anything.  Not sure what I am going to do with them yet but I couldn’t pass them up.  I’ll keep you posted on that one.

The first recipe I will share with you from my bounty is Red and Blue Oatmeal Bars.  Most of the ingredients you will probably have on hand and don’t need to head to the Farmers Market for but I like to use the jam from The Jam Man!  Otherwise, any type you may have in the fridge would be just fine.

These bars have the perfect mix of sweet, salty and crunchy from the butter and oatmeal and smooth and silky from the jam.

Here is what you need:

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup or 1 stick unsalted butter, softened (if using salted butter, cut the salt down to 1/4 tsp)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup red & blue jam (this is the jam I purchased from the market which is raspberry & blueberry mixed.  You can substitute any type of jam you have on hand or whichever is your favorite.)

Here is what you do:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a 9 inch spare baking pan with cooking spray or butter and flour the pan.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

In a standing mixer or another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until combined.  Add the flour mixture and mix just until combined.  Stir in 1 3/4 cup oats.

Spread 2/3 of the batter into prepared pan.  Spoon jam over batter.

Mix remaining 1/4 cup of oats into reserved 1/3 cup of batter.  With fingers crumble batter over top of jam.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown.  (mine took precisely 32 minutes)

Let cool in pan and then cut into bars.

You can leave the bars in the pan and cover with saran wrap to store them.  I prefer to take them out so the easiest way to do that was to cut into 4 sections and transfer onto a dish with a spatula like so……..

Doing it this way makes it easier to cut the bars into smaller servings.  But, again, that’s your choice.

Sorry if this picture is a little blurry – I was shaking at the anticipation of eating it! Pure decadence!

These bars would also be great served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top.  They also pack and travel well so they are a terrific dessert to take along on a picnic, to the beach, on vacation, wherever.

Next recipe that will follow – later today or tomorrow – Squash Blossom Quesadillas with a Tomatillo Salsa!