Blueberry Crumble Bars

These Blueberry Crumble Bars can double as breakfast or dessert. One bowl, no mixer needed. They’re made with a crumbly oat mixture, blueberry preserves and fresh blueberries.

Are they breakfast or dessert and, more importantly, do we even care?

Bring on the bluebs.

Real talk: I made these bars because I had a jar of blueberry preserves sitting in the fridge that was honestly getting real tired of being spread on a boring piece of toast every morning.

These blueberry crumble bars are perfect for when you want something sweet but also don’t want to feel like you’re eating cake for breakfast. Or when you want dessert but don’t want to have a sugar crash aftewrards.

Are they breakfast? Are they dessert? That’s the million dollar question, but honestly, I don’t know and I don’t care. They’re good, they’re easy, and they use stuff you probably already have.

If it makes you feel better about the breakfast situation, skip the glaze. If you’re just out there living your best life without a care in the world, drizzle on the glaze and then lick the spoon clean. No judgement from me.

♥ 3 Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe:

1. They’re ridiculously easy. Mix, press, sprinkle, bake. That’s it. No fancy techniques or special equipment needed.
2. They use ingredients you probably already have. Flour, oats, butter, and some blueberry preserves. The fresh blueberries are a nice touch, but honestly, the preserves are doing most of the heavy lifting here so leave ’em out if you don’t have them.
3. They’re perfectly not-too-sweet. These bars hit that sweet spot where they’re satisfying without being cloying. You can actually taste the blueberries instead of just sugar.

Swaps & Tips:

Use what you’ve got. These bars work with any jam, jelly, or preserves. Strawberry, raspberry, apricot – whatever’s hanging out in your fridge will work perfectly. Imagine apricot preserves + fresh blueberries on top…

Want them sweeter? Swap the preserves for blueberry pie filling. It’ll make them more dessert-like and less breakfast-appropriate, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need.

No fresh blueberries? Skip them entirely. The preserves provide plenty of blueberry flavor on their own.

Step by Step Instructions:

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl combine the melted butter and vanilla, then mix into the dry ingredients until the consistency is crumbly. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the mixture and set it aside.

Firmly press the remaining mixture into the bottom of a prepared 9×9 baking dish. Use your hands, the back of a measuring cup, or a spatula to press it in and form a crust.

Spread the blueberry preserves over the crust. If you have fresh blueberries on hand, sprinkle a handful over the top.

Top with the remaining crust, bake, cool, and drizzle on a simple powdered sugar glaze.

Pro Tips:

We tested these bars quite a few times (the kids were excited) and these are a few of our top tips from the test kitchen:

Let them cool completely. I know it’s tempting to cut into them right away, but these need to cool completely or they’ll fall apart. For the cleanest cuts, stick them in the fridge for an hour after they’ve cooled.

Line your pan with parchment. Make it easy on yourself and use parchment paper with some overhang. You can lift the whole thing out and cut on a cutting board instead of trying to cut in the pan.

Using frozen blueberries? Thaw them first and pat them dry with paper towels. Otherwise the bars can get a bit soggy.

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