My first baking love will probably always be chocolate. I’m sure I am not alone in that sentiment. However, I do try to vary things a bit around the BoB kitchen. These bars are a nice deviation from the norm.
I’m pretty much a fool for the crust and crumb of these bars. Butter, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans…. Yes, please! There’s just something so warm and comforting about that combination. It’s certainly hard to resist.
In between those delicious layers is a thin layer of preserves. I let Quinn choose the flavor, and he picked blueberry. I must say that I think he chose wisely. The combination of blueberry preserves with the crust/crumb is just right.
If you’re an ice cream fan, these would probably be quite lovely with a little dollop of vanilla right on top. I’ll go the purist route and take them as they are.
Blueberry Jam Bars
These simple Blueberry Jam Bars are always a winner!
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 3/4 cup blueberry (or other flavor) preserves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°. Grease a 9″x 13″x 2″ baking pan and line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and pecans. Add butter and combine with either a mixer or a pastry blender until crumbs form. Set aside 1 & 1/2 cups of crumb mixture.
- Press remaining crumb mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until golden.
- Spread preserves over crust. Drop reserved 1 & 1/2 cups crumb mixture on top of preserves. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until top is golden. Cool completely before removing from pan and cutting into bars.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Taste of the South.
18 Comments on “Blueberry Jam Bars”
I’ve always been a fan of bars, yours look chewy and that’s how I like them
Uh huh…I knew you would have to venture to “not chocolate” land just to balance the entries. But I was just wondering if you could replace the preserves with Nutella…just saying. Or if you did orange marmalade you could serve them with a drizzle of Nutella…I love orange and chocolate…still just saying!!!
Tim, Nutella sounds brilliant to me. Brilliant.
These look wonderful. I’m partial to blueberry too.
I would love to put brownie batter layer in between – since I am a little over partial to chocolate 🙂
I’ve tried it before with other chewy bars and your recipe looks tops!
Yummy! What brand of jam did you use? I can never find any that taste ‘right.’ :/
Lily, I used Bonne Maman blueberry preserves.
I love making my own cereal bars… at least that way I know what’s in them.
These look delicious.
Wow, these look so delicious!!
My husband is wild about blueberries…I can’t wait to make these for him!
Looking forward to trying these. What is the best way to store? Fridge or room temp?
An airtight container at room temperature is fine.
Just cut the cooled bars. So so so yum! Thanks!
This recipe just popped up on my FB page and since I made peach jam last week, I think I will make this but use my jam. I think it will be really yummy!
Enjoy! 🙂
Just made these, they are sooooooo good.
Omg. I didn’t read the directions thoroughly. I skipped a step.
After pressing half of the batter on the bottom of the cooking pan, I immediately added the blueberry jam, then sprinkled the rest of the batter on top. It is now baking in the oven.
I am now jittery waiting for the outcome of my erratic baking .
Hoping against hope the recipe is forgiving — that somehow it turns out still more or less okay, maybe with more time in the oven.
Hi, Myrna! More time in the oven is probably the solution. The top may get over-browned, but you could try to combat that by covering it with foil if you notice it’s going a bit too far.