I love a good lemon dessert. Who doesn’t? And I love lemon bars. Who doesn’t?
These lemon oat bars are like a lemon bar crossed with an oatmeal cookie. A twist on the lemon bar with some texture.
You use oatmeal to make the crust instead of a classic shortbread type crust. Then you top the lemon filling with a little of the oatmeal cookie crust and it gives a crunchy texture to the top. Yum!
My friend Emmy brought these into work one day. They were divine! I got the recipe and have made them lots of times since.
They call for whole wheat flour, which is a bonus health wise, but you can also just use AP flour if you don’t have whole wheat. The whole wheat lends some extra texture and a bit of nutty flavor.
The recipe calls for whole rolled oats, but also calls for some oats to be blended into a flour in your blender or food processor. It’s pretty ingenious.
I’m gonna be honest here. Sometimes I double the crust recipe, because I like it. A lot. Feel free to try it both ways. Extra crust or regular crust. (I’m pretty sure the ones pictured had double crust.)
These are a great spring treat. Tangy lemon, crispy sweet oatmeal topping. You can’t go wrong!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- 2/3 cup old fashion rolled oats, ground in blender or food processor
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (or you can also just use AP flour)
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 can (14.5 oz) sweetened condensed milk
- zest of 1 lemon (make sure to zest it BEFORE you juice it.)
- 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (2-3 lemons depending on how juicy they are)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Lightly greese a 9x13 pan.
- In a large bowl or in a stand mixer, cream butter, sugar, baking soda and salt until smooth. Add oats and oat flour, wheat flour and orange juice. Mix until combined and cohesive.
- Sprinkle half of this mixture on the bottom of the pan and press to flatten.
- In a different bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and zest until smooth.
- Spread filling over crust evenly.
- Sprinkle remaining crust mixture (oats/flour/butter) over filling
- Bake 30-45 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool. Refrigerate overnight, for best texture.
Recipe Source: Emmy, my former co-worker
Aww, thanks Anita. We all know who is the genius baker here. Anyway, I felt I should give credit to the actual recipe source. King Arthur Flour – whole grain baking. I can’t remember the real title and the cookbook is in a box somewhere. Those lemon bars are so awesome. I haven’t made them since moving to CA. I will have to try doubling the crust – sounds like an excellent idea!
Great, thanks for the original source! I wasn’t quite sure.