While I was making these black cherry oatmeal bars my house smelled absolutely amazing. When I took them out of the oven, I had to force-stop myself not to cut a piece right there and then, and eat it. Who else, but me, use to beg their Mom to have a piece of the hot food or desserts, when they just came out of the oven….?
My Mom use to tell me that it´s bad for my stomach…. (can anyone vouch for that??)
This recipe was inspired by the amazing NEW ENGLAND FARMGIRL Cookbook: Recipes & Stories From A Farmer´s Daughter, written by Jessica Robinson of Carolina Farmhouse Kitchen. In her book she made Raspberry Oatmeal Bars, but I wanted to try it with black cherries, oh and added some cinnamon & vanilla too 🙂
[bctt tweet=”These Black Cherry Oatmeal Bars are the bomb.com!”]
This New England Farmgirl Cookbook is beautiful to say the least… Just imagine living on the farm and using your very own harvests to make the most amazing food (AND DESSERTS). Harvests that tell a story, about life on a farm. Magical!
I tell you what, I could easily live like that. Although to be completely honest, I would need to live close to the city as well. I need both in my life. Don´t judge! lol
According to Google, New England is a northeasterly region of the U.S. comprising the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. It’s known for its Colonial past, long Atlantic coastline, changing autumn foliage and forested mountains. Boston, Massachusetts, the region’s hub, pre-dates the American Revolution, and its Freedom Trail passes sites that were critical to the nation’s founding.
Do yourself a favour and go search for the term “New England Autumn”. It´s Breathtaking!
So today, myself and a few other Blogger friends, i.e. Paige from Where Latin Meets Lagniappe, Jennifer from JenniferMeyering.com and Whitney from That Square Plate are hosting a GIVEAWAY for you to win a hardcopy of this beautiful book! Yay! Be sure to visit their blogs to see the amazing recipes they made!
The Giveaway is open to all residents in the US & Canada. Scroll down to see how you can enter 🙂
Just one quick thing, the recipe says to add half of the mixture into a baking pan, top it with preseves and then crumble the other half of the mixture on top. I would suggest that you add 2/3 of the mixture at the bottom, top it with the preserves and then crumble the last 1/3 on top. Why? Because I would love more of the preserves oozing through!
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 x 2/3 cups of white sugar
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp grounded cinnamon
- 2 pinches of salt
- 2/3 tsp baking powder
- 1 jar black cherry preserve
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF / 175ºC.
- Grease a baking pan (I used a 20 x 20 cm / 8 x 8 in) with butter and leave to the side.
- Cream the butter and sugar together really well.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
- Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the baking pan.
- Spread the preserves over it in an even layer.
- Crumble the remaining mixture, with your hands, over the raspberry preserves.
- Bake for 40 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.
- Cool completely before cutting.
Notes
Changes that I made to the original Raspberry Oatmeal Bar recipes:
I divided the ingredients into 2/3 (because my baking pan was smaller than the one she suggested in her recipe).
I replace the brown sugar with white (because I ran out of brown sugar!).
I added cinnamon and vanilla extract into the mixture (because that´s just me).
I replaced the raspberry preserve with black cherry preserve (because I love black cherries!).
I added oats on the top before baking it in the oven (it added an extra layer of crunch).
So for those of you who celebrate it, how was your Thanksgiving? Although I´m not American, I did celebrate a Friendsgiving on Thanksgiving day with American, Canadian, Latvian, Zimbabwian, Scottish and British friends. We ate a ton of food! I made these cute mini pumpkin pies that I posted on Facebook and ofcourse on Instagram 😉
Some exciting NEWS! In the next few days we (myself and 9 other Food Bloggers) will be launching a CHRISTMAS PROJECT COOKBOOK. It will be available for pdf download.
The best part is that we´re donating every single cent to a the NO KIDS HUNGRY Charity for underprivileged kids. I will be posting more about it on my social media accounts in the next few days, so be sure to follow me there if you are not already 🙂
See how to, in the image below (you can´t miss the big red arrow).
Until next time! Don´t forget to enter the Giveaway!
Johlene
xoxo
ps. Share This Recipe With Your Friends On Pinterest! ???
I absolutely love eating oatmeal cookies during the holidays. But I never thought to add cherries to the recipes. This looks absolutely stunning and oh so darn delicious Johlene.
These are really very good Kia, please give them a try 🙂
I’ve never heard that eating food hot from the oven is bad for your stomach, but my mother stopped me from doing that too! Now I’m curious and going to have to google search your mom’s theory! 🙂 LOVE these bars, girlfriend! While the original sounds good, I am loving your use of black cherry! And the addition of cinnamon and vanilla just sounds fabulous! These bars wouldn’t last a minute in my house! Cheers, my dear!
Haha! Tell me what you found out cause I´m super curious to know 🙂
Johlene, love the bars, this NEW ENGLAND FARMGIRL Cookbook and congrats on your Christmas cookbook project! Can’t wait to see it!!!
Thanks Alice!! I can´t wait to share it with you guys! Christmas is so much more than just getting presents and eating great food (nothing wrong with that though) but it´s also about giving to people who are less fortunate than ourselves. We are donating all the proceeds to the NO KID HUNGRY foundation and I´m so excited!!
Woah…these bars look amazing, Johlene! I have always dreamed of living on a farm and making meals based on whatever we grow. While it’s kinda hard to make that happen, we do at least plant a huge garden every summer. And guess what? We have a cherry tree in the backyard! Maybe I’ll use some of those cherries to make these bars. 🙂
Oh I would love that! To live on a farm with a big old farmhouse, filling jars with fruit preserves that I grew myself, and baking my own bread.. Now that´s perfect!
I love oatmeal bars! And these looks absolutely delicious with the cherries. Can’t wait to try <3
Thanks Lindsey! My husband basically scraped the bowl until it was completely clean 🙂 🙂
These sound amazing! I am always looking for new fruits to put in oatmeal bars and black cherries sound divine!
Thanks so much Ashlyn (by the way I love your name!). These turned out really good. Next time I´ll be making them with apricot preserve, like my aunt used to.. 🙂