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The easiest peanut butter and jam oat bars. These take about 5 minutes to prep and are so addicting! Peanut butter and jam oat bars are perfect for your spring get-togethers!
It’s peanut butter jelly time!
I’m a sucker for a good strawberry jam! Whenever there’s a jar in the refrigerator, I find myself swirling a bit into my vanilla yogurt for a snack.
So today I’m turning my all-time jam obsession into oat crumble bars.
PB&J oat bars are like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but with a nutty oat crust and crumble. They have just the right amount of sugar to make it taste like dessert but doesn’t set my teeth on edge.
Most of the oat mixture is the crust, but the remaining dough doubles as the crumble topping that we sprinkle on top. The best part is that these oatmeal jam bars use mostly basic pantry ingredients. The center is a thick layer of jam, or your favorite apricot, peach, or mixed berries preserves.
Ingredients for jam oat bars
- all-purpose flour: mixed with the rolled oats to make the crumble and the base.
- rolled oats: also known as old-fashioned or even whole oats. Quick cooking oats will not work in this recipe, they cook much faster and would require a different ratio of butter, sugar, etc.
- shredded sweetened coconut: is optional but it lends plenty of nuttiness to the oat layer. Feel free to omit this, the recipe does work without it.
- salted butter: brings the oats together to form a crust and crumble.
- sugar: adds sweetness.
- Peanut butter: I use and suggest creamy peanut butter
- baking powder: acts as a leavening agent.
- ground cinnamon: adds a homemade scent
- jam: use strawberry, raspberry, mixed berry, blackberry, cherry, or even grape! the sky is the limit.
How to make jam oat bars
- Make the crumble and the crust. Grab a bowl; we’re going to melt the butter and the peanut butter together in a microwave-safe bowl first. Mix all the dry ingredients except in a bowl and slowly pour in the melted butter mixture while you stir or mix using a fork or spoon. When the mixture resembles a sand-like texture, it’s done. Press two-thirds of the mixture into your baking dish. Reserve the remaining for the crumble topping.
- Top with your preserves. Spread your jam in an even layer.
- Sprinkle and bake. Top it with the reserved crumble. Bake in the oven until golden. Cool them on the counter at room temperature or stick them in the refrigerator to cool them down quickly. The bars cut best at room temperature or when they’re cold.
- Storing leftovers. Keep remaining bars in an airtight container and consume within a few days.
Recipe Tips
- Here is the baking pan I used. It’s a 12×9.5 rectangle pan so the bars are thicker than what they’d be if you used a traditional 13×9. You can make the same thing in a 13×9 pan but keep in mind that the bars will be slightly thinner and you’ll need to decrease the baking time by a couple of minutes.
- Be sure to pack in the crust. You don’t want the bottom to crumble (quite literally)
- Use good quality jam here! I’d splurge and use something you love spreading on toast or swirled into your midday yogurt.
- Let the peanut butter and jelly oat bars cool completely before trying to remove them from the baking pan. At least an hour, longer if you can. Once they’ve cooled for an hour, I usually stick them in the refrigerator and let them cool completely, and it makes it so much easier to slice them that way. If you need them sooner, let them cool on the counter for 15-20 minutes and then stick them in the freezer.
Peanut butter jelly oat bars are salty and sweet and buttery and coconuty and oh so good!
Peanut Butter and Jam Oat Bars
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups rolled old-fashioned oats
- 1 cup salted butter see notes
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup creamy peanut butter the kind that doesn’t require stirring!
- ⅓ cup shredded sweetened coconut optional
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 13 ounce jam or preserves strawberry, raspberry, mixed, peach, apricot, grape, anything goes!
Instructions
- CRUMBLE: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a 13×9 baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside for now. Combine the peanut butter and the salted butter in a microwave-safe bowl and zap in the microwave in 30-second increments until the mixture melts and mixes. Mix the oats, flour, sugar, coconut (optional,) baking powder, and ground cinnamon together in a large bowl. Pour in the melted butter mixture and stir to combine until you form a sand-like crumb. Press two-thirds of the prepared crumb mixture into the prepared pan. You want to make sure the crust is tightly packed in.
- SPREAD: Spread the jam over the oat crust layer.
- BAKE: Top with the remaining crumb mixture on top. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack for one hour. I usually stick mine in the refrigerator for a few hours after that to cool them down completely before cutting into pieces. If you cut them right away, they’ll still be delicious, just not as neat!
Notes
- If you have unsalted butter, just add ½ teaspoon of kosher salt when you add the butter to the recipe.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
How long will these keep, and do you store at room temperature or refrigerated? Thank you!
How about packing everything into a muffin tin to bake? I’m trying it for a handheld toddler lunch cuz my child hates bread
I just made these in a mini muffin pan. And they almost burnt. They definitely do not need 40 minutes to cook. More like 15-20.
This recipe looks amazing. Have you tried adding protein powder to the crumble to give the bars an extra protein boost?
These sound wonderful. Plan to make them for a baking contest I am entering. Thank you so much.
Could these be prepared and frozen? I’m due in December and my husband LOVES these for a post-PT snack, so I’m trying to gather recipes I can make and freeze in advance of labor. Thanks in advance!
Hi Kat! I haven’t tried freezing these before, but I do think they’d hold up just fine! I’d cut them into portions and freeze them so that you can just defrost a piece at room temp (or zap for 15 seconds or so.) Hope that helps! 🙂
What size baking pan?
Sorry, I’m not finding a note re the salted butter.
Hi Rede! My apologies, the note dropped off when we made a few changes in the background. The notes just mention adding 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt if you don’t happen to have salted butter on hand 🙂