Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Bars

If you made my cranberry sauce for your holiday gathering, you’re going to want this recipe for Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Bars. This oatmeal bar recipe uses leftover cranberry sauce. I feel like it’s easy to find recipes for all the holiday leftovers, but what to do with the cranberry sauce?

Cranberry sauce is more of a condiment.  This leaves us with a fair amount left at the end of the meal. What do you do with leftover cranberry sauce?  Oatmeal Bars is just one of the creative ways you can use it up!

Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Bars

While this recipe was created using leftover cranberry sauce, you could sub in jam or pie filling if that’s what you have. You’ll simply want to use this recipe as a guide. The crust and crumble top will pair perfectly with whatever fillings you have .

Here are some of the things you can use in the Oatmeal Bars:

• Apple Pie Filling
• Cherry Pie Filling
• Pumpkin Pie Filling
• Apple Butter
• Jam (any flavor you like)

You can even replace the orange zest with lemon zest or lime zest (would pair great with the cherry option!). You could also omit the zest for flavors like Apple and Pumpkin. The rest of the crumble recipe stays the same. You just swap in your favorite fillings.

What pan is best for baking oatmeal bars?

These bars are made in an 8×8 pan.  I use a darker non-stick pan. I personally like the fact that I don’t have to worry about sticking and the crust browns perfectly. If you opt to bake with lighter metal or glass, you need to expect that your bars will take the longer bake time.  They do not conduct heat the same way.

This is true for any kind of baking you do. So , when you read a time range, always consider the type of pan you are using. It truly makes a difference, and that is why we write recipes for a range rather than a specific set time. Oven temps being off, the kind of pan etc can always effect the timing.

Always check your recipe about 4-5 minutes before the recommended bake time to catch it before it burns or determine when to add time.

These Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Bars are truly one of my favorite holiday leftover dishes. I want to have cranberry sauce around just to make them again!

Enjoy and don’t forget to pin this recipe for later!  Please leave a rating and comment if you make these so my other readers will know how it went. Thanks for stopping by!

Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Bars

Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Bars are a delicious way to use up leftover cranberry sauce. Cranberry and Orange come together perfectly in this healthier treat.

4 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 9 People

Calories 236 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Crust/Crumble

• 1 & 3/4 cups Old Fashioned Oats
• 3/4 cup Flour
• 8 tbsp. Butter 1 stick; softened
• 1 tbsp Orange Zest
• 1/4 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

Filling

• 1 Cup Cranberry Sauce Canned or prepared from recipe (linked in notes)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• Juice of one Orange

Instructions

 

• Preheat Oven to 375 degrees

  Mix together the oats, flour, butter, zest of orange, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar, salt and vanilla extract with a fork until it resembles course crumbs.
• Remove 1.5 cups of the crust mix and set aside. Press the rest into an 8x8 pan that is either non-stick or sprayed with cooking spray. You can also use parchment paper. You can wet your hands so the crust doesn't stick to you.
• Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are brown. Meanwhile mix up the filling.
• Mix the cranberry sauce, vanilla, salt and orange juice in a small bowl.
• When the crust is done, spread the cranberry mixture over the baked crust. Take your 1.5 cups of crumble topping and spread it evenly over the cranberry mixture.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden and they look set.
• Allow the bars to cool on a wire rack for 2 hours. Then refrigerate for 1 hour before cutting and serving.

Notes

This recipe uses my homemade cranberry sauce with apple cider. You can use jarred if that's what you have or another filling as recommended in the post.

Nutrition

Calories: 236kcalCarbohydrates: 29gProtein: 3gFat: 11g

Keyword Cranberry, Cranberry Orange, Oatmeal, Orange

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!