Cranberry Raisin Bars

A stack of three oatmeal raisin bars on a plate. Each is separated by a tan piece of parchment.

My mom called these bars "cinnamon raisin bars." Feel free to make them with your favorite dried fruit or a mixture of dried fruits.

These little raisin bars make the perfect lunchbox snack or after-school snack. They are a little sweet and a little tart and are a bit chewy.

Whether or not you glaze them, they are lovely with a cup of tea or a glass of milk. These cookie bars are a treat for the whole family.

Course Cookies and Bars

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 50

Rest Time 15

Total Time 1 10

Servings -36 bars, depending on how you cut them

Calories 180kcal

Author Jennifer Field

Ingredients

For the Oatmeal Dough

4 oz 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
6.6-7 oz 1 cup, packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
7 oz about 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups rolled oats (I just used a measuring cup)
2 Tablespoons water divided

For the Fruit

1.75 oz brown sugar (about 1/4 cup, lightly packed)
8 oz 1 cup water (you could also use apple juice, cranberry juice or whatever sounds good for the water, but you might have to adjust the sugar)
1 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups total dried fruit raisins, dried cranberries, cherries, apricots, etc
heavy pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350F.
Spray a 9"x13" baking pan with pan spray. Set aside.

For the Crust

Combine butter, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Mix on medium-low speed until you no longer see pieces of butter and the mixture is nice and smooth.
Beat in 1 Tablespoon of the water.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda and oats.
Dump into the mixer and mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape the bowl as necessary.

For the Fruit

Combine all the ingredients except the vanilla in a medium sauce pan.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about ten minutes.
Remove from heat and, stir in the vanilla.
Let the mixture cool for about fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally.

To Assemble and Bake

Press about 2/3 of the crust mixture into your pan in an even layer. It should be about 1/4" thick.
Spread on the fruit in an even layer. Make sure to take it all the way to the edges.
Add the remaining 1 Tablespoon of water to the remaining crust mixture and mix well. Drop small "nuggets" of crust mixture all over the top of the fruit layer. You want to see some fruit peeking through, but make sure you get a nice even layer of crumbs.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the top is firm and deeply golden brown.
Let cool on a rack until room temperature.
Glaze and let set up before slicing. If you're not going to glaze them, go ahead and slice them. These keep well at room temperature for 4-5 days.
Freeze for longer storage.

Notes

GENERAL NOTES:

If you want thicker bars, use a 9"x9" pan. Bake for half an hour, and then turn the heat down to 325F. Continue baking until the crust is a lovely deep golden brown.

Glaze them as you see fit, but they are fantastic naked, too.

You could always heat these up (or serve straight from the oven) as a kind of dried fruit crisp. In this case, ice cream is advisable.

Glaze Ingredients

If you'd like to drizzle your bars with glaze, here's how to make it:

Whisk together:

1 cup powdered sugar
heavy pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or as much as you like)
2-3 Tablespoons milk. Start with 2 Tablespoons and add a bit more as needed to make a nice drizzling consistency
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Use a fork to drizzle the glaze on. Allow it to set up until it is hard before cutting.

Cutting the Bars

These bars are fairly thin and can be a bit of a pain to get out of the pan.

I cut them into 6-8 large sections with a dinner knife right in the pan.

Then, I remove each section with a spatula and them on a cutting board.

Slice each section into 4-6 smaller pieces. I like to use a pizza wheel for this. It makes nice, clean cuts.

Variations

In the photos, I used 1 cup golden raisins, 1/2 cup dried cranberries, and 1/2 cup tart cherries. This is a lovely combination, but you can use any combination of dried fruits you like.

apricots (snip them so the pieces are "raisin sized")
blueberries
raspberries
tart cherries
golden raisins
"regular" raisins
prunes (again, snip so the pieces are raisin-sized)
figs
dates
etc

Storage

Store in a tightly-covered container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Freeze (unglazed works best) in heavy-duty zip-top freezer bags. Press out as much air as possible before sealing. They will keep just fine for up to 2 months. Thaw in the sealed bag at room temperature for several hours or overnight.

Nutrition information is based on slicing into 30 pieces without glaze. Values will increase with larger slices and decrease for smaller sizes.

Nutrition