Sunday, January 09, 2011

Blueberry Cream Cheese Oat Bars

I’ve been meaning to tell you about these delicious Blueberry Cream Cheese Oat Bars I made for New Year’s Eve (Yes, we had quite the spread here—I had also made three kinds of soup, Spinach Artichoke Dip, Homemade Soft Pretzel Bites, some other cookies and….well, let’s just say no one starved!).  Possibly my favorite treat of the night were these oat bars.
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I took the recipe, which I have posted before, for Blueberry Oat Bars from Anna’s blog, Cookie Madness, and I added a cream cheese layer.  These tasted great and were fun to use blueberries in the wintertime with my big freezer stash from this summer.
Blueberry Cream Cheese Oat Bars, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Cookie Madness
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Blueberry Filling:
1 2/3 cup frozen blueberries
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2-3 teaspoons lemon juice

Cream Cheese Filling:
8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch salt
                                                                                                                                        
Heat oven to 350. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick foil or parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add melted butter and stir with fork until evenly moistened (mixture will be very crumbly). Reserve 1/2 cup crumb mixture for topping; Press remaining mixture firmly over bottom of foil-lined pan. Bake 12 minutes to set crust.
Prepare Cream Cheese Filling:
In bowl of electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add sugar, vanilla and salt and beat well.  Add egg and mix until combined.  Pour filling over baked crust.
Prepare Filling: In a small saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar and cornstarch. Stir in lemon juice. Turn heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until mixture begins to thicken slight (it won’t be too thick) and clear (about 7 minutes). Remove from heat and pour over the cream cheese filling. Crumble reserved crumb mixture over top, then sprinkle nuts over crumb mixture.
Bake 30 minutes until top is browned and filling is bubbly. Let cool completely in pan set on a wire rack. When cool, chill for an hour before cutting. Lift foil by ends onto a cutting board. Peel off foil; cut into 12 bars. Store in refrigerator, but serve at room temperature.
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Make these—they were a big hit on New Year’s Eve and would be for any occasion!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my! Those look positively scrumptious!

Fallon said...

Yum!! Those actually sound fabulous, like a healthy blueberry cheesecake!

Unknown said...

This looks like a perfect bite, I am really craving a sweet right now. Lovely idea with the new layer.

Unknown said...

What a delicious combo of flavors! I've got a huge freezer stash of blueberries too so these would be perfect.

Lisa said...

What a great idea to add a cream cheese layer to these bars. They look fantastic. You really know how to take recipes to a new level of deliciousness.

Leslie said...

These look amazing. I love everything about them. The blueberry and cream cheese go perfectly together.

Donna-FFW said...

They certainly look beyond delicious! I wish I had one with my AM coffee right this very second..

Anna said...

Yum! Great photos

Lisa Ernst said...

I remember when Anna posted these and thought to myself that I really needed to bake them sometime. Then I forgot. They really do look wonderful and now they're back on my radar thanks to you.

Unknown said...

Those look really good!

Unknown said...

These look divine. I've got to try them. You did a great job in the class you taught last night!

scrambledhenfruit said...

I haven't made sweets since before Christmas so these are really calling me. The blueberries in these look so good! :)

Amanda said...

I'm so in love with everything blueberry. And cream cheese rocks my world! I'm really not crazy about things with oats (kinda like you with white chocolate) ;) but I bet these were delish!

CaSaundraLeigh said...

Blueberry and cream cheese make such a great pairing! It would be fun to switch it up and use strawberries or raspberries in these too!

Unknown said...

Ooh! That oozy filling looks soo good! I might just make this with strawberries, even though I won't be able to eat it :(

The Honey Nut said...

Ahhh these look to die for! I love blueberry and cream cheese!!

gloria said...

These looked so delicious and I had all the ingredients in my pantry so I decided to make them today for a dinner party. Even though I didn't read the recipe properly (I mixed the nuts into the crumble so some of them ended up in the crust),the bars were delicious and beautiful. I did make some minor changes which I will post in the next couple of days. I think frozen raspberries or strawberries would work too! Thank you for this delicious and beautiful desert!

gloria said...

I hate it when my voice activated typing software makes errors I don't catch! I meant to say Thank you for this delicious and beautiful dessert-not desert. I don't think there is a delicious desert unless you like the taste of sand-although some may say they are beautiful!

Rol3yn said...

Making some of these now with some fresh wild Maine blueberries I picked this weekend. I put some graham cracker in with the oats (about 1-1/4 cup oats, 3 crushed grahams) and it looks delicious! Thanks for the recipe! Nice to see some oats being used. :)

Eva said...

Made these today with some slight modifications. I used a different oatmeal cookie recipe and cut in cold butter instead of melted. They were so yummy and a big hit! Thank you for sharing :)

Correen said...

Nom nom nom! Making for post-Christmas brunch. Thanks for sharing your recipe.