Raspberry Oat Bars

Yesterday I got the urge to bake my husband "a little something" (his term for a yummy dessert item of some sort).  We were out of chocolate chips, so Toll House cookies--my old standby--were out of the question.  I had the makings for homemade brownies, but without chocolate chips added, brownies are hardly worth eating--don't you agree?  We did have a couple of cans of red raspberry pie filling (or "raspberry goo," as we like to call it) on hand, though; my husband loves it so much that he could eat it right out of the can.  I got thinking about these delicious rhubarb granola bars that my daughter-in-law made while I was out in Colorado with her recently, and I thought maybe I could do something similar with raspberry filling instead of rhubarb.  So I went on-line and found a recipe for raspberry oat bars on Allrecipes.com.  (I've decided that one of the best uses of the Internet is finding recipes!  You can find a recipe for just about any dish under the sun.)  This particular recipe called for 10 oz. of raspberry preserves, which we did have on hand, too.  But I substituted that ingredient for 21 oz. of raspberry pie filling, so I think I can now consider this my very own recipe and post it here on "String of Pearls."

Raspberry Oat Bars


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Grease a 9 X 13" pan.

Cream together:
3/4 c. softened butter
1 c. packed brown sugar

Mix together dry ingredients:
1 and 1/2 c. rolled oats
1 and 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Stir dry mixture into creamed mixture.

Press half of the crust mixture into bottom of prepared pan.  Spread the 21 oz. can of raspberry pie filling over the crust.

Crumble the remaining crust mixture over the raspberry layer.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown.  Cool completely before cutting into bars.

The part about waiting for it to cool is important; I got impatient to taste this deliciousness and tried to lift out a square too soon.  I ended up with a hot, shapeless, goopy pile of raspberry goo and oats on my plate.  It was yummy to the extreme, however--even though it looked like a mess. (And it would have been even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!)  But later on when it was no longer boiling-lava-hot, I cut a normal piece and this is how it looked:

I'm sure this recipe would be great with rhubarb filling, too--or any flavor of pie filling, for that matter.

Bon appetit!