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Cranberry Oatmeal Bars

Grandma Betty’s Cranberry Oatmeal Bars have a layer of delicious cranberry sauce sandwiched in between layers of sweetened oatmeal!

GRANDMA’S EASY CRANBERRY OATMEAL BARS

I am sharing another Grandma Betty recipe today! Thank you so much for all of the positive feedback to all of my shares of her recipes that I am recreating from her old handwritten recipe book.

stacked cranberry oatmeal bars on an old-fashioned serving tray with a glass of iced tea in the background.

My Grandma loved easy recipes  – just like me! So many of the dessert recipes in her cookbook are fairly simple. There are a few homemade cake recipes too. But you can tell, as the years went on, her cookbook was filled with recipes that used more store-bought items.

Grandma's Cookbook showing the first page.

My Grandma Betty had 9 children and a ridiculous amount of grandchildren – I’m the oldest granddaughter. So, I love that she took advantage of convenience items as she got older. I feel like her cookbook, in some way, tells a story. With all of the cocoa powder stains on it and the evolution of the recipes. It’s a story all her own told through food.

Grandma Betty's Cranberry Oatmeal Bars, handwritten recipe.

PERFECT FOR THE HOLIDAYS

They are perfect for the holidays! They bake up and slice up beautifully that they make perfect gifts or to share at holiday cookie exchanges.

a silver tiered serving tray with cranberry oatmeal bars stacked on top of each other.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED: (FULL RECIPE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST)

  • all-purpose flour
  • salt
  • baking soda
  • light brown sugar
  • old-fashioned oatmeal (not quick cooking)
  • butter shortening
  • whole cranberry sauce
oatmeal, cranberry sauce, brown sugar, butter shortening, brown sugar and flour.

Cook’s Notes: You want to purchase whole cranberry sauce. Not jellied sauce.

HOW TO MAKE CRANBERRY OATMEAL BARS:

Preheat oven to 350f degrees. Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking soda, brown sugar and oatmeal.

oatmeal, flour, brown sugar in a bowl.

Slowly add shortening and mix well.

melted butter shortening (Crisco) added int with oatmeal mixture in a bowl.

Press half of the oatmeal mixture into prepared baking dish.

oatmeal bar mixture pressed into the bottom of a rectangular baking dish.

Spread cranberry sauce over oatmeal mixture.

whole cranberry sauce evenly spread over oatmeal mixture.

Cover with remaining oatmeal mixture. Bake for about 50-60 minutes.

cooked and cooled oatmeal cranberry sauce bars.

Allow to cool completely. Then slice and serve.

Oatmeal Cranberry Bars on a decorative serving plate shown close up.

Note: I know some folks are gonna question that shortening as an ingredient. I have only made these bars using this exact recipe. Feel free to make substitutions but I can only speak for this original recipe from Grandma.

CRAVING MORE RECIPES?

Cranberry Oatmeal Bars

Cranberry Oatmeal Bars

Grandma Betty's Cranberry Oatmeal Bars have a layer of delicious cranberry sauce sandwiched in between layers of sweetened oatmeal!
5 from 7 votes
Print Pin Rate
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 55 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings: 15

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
  • 4 cups light brown sugar
  • 4 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (not quick-cooking)
  • 2 cups butter shortening, melted
  • 16 ounce can whole cranberry sauce*

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt, baking soda, brown sugar and oatmeal.
  • Slowly add shortening and mix well.
  • Press half of the oatmeal mixture into prepared baking dish.
  • Spread cranberry sauce over oatmeal mixture.
  • Cover with remaining oatmeal mixture. Bake for about 50-60 minutes.
  • Allow to cool completely.
  • Then slice and serve.

Notes

  • Cook’s Notes: You want to purchase whole cranberry sauce. Not jellied sauce.
  • I’ve only made this recipe using my Grandma’s original recipe. Any other variations you may want to try (i.e. using butter instead of shortening) will be an experiment on your part and I cannot guarantee they will turn out the same.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American

Nutrition

Calories: 599kcal | Carbohydrates: 84g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 28g | Sodium: 357mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 57g

Nutritional Disclaimer

“The Country Cook” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and other nutritional values are important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and other nutritional values can vary quite a bit depending on which brands were used.

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Recipe Rating




13 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Absolutely wonderful!! Making these for our family Thanksgiving breakfast as an appetizer—so far my taste testers are giving these 2 thumbs up!

  2. 5 stars
    Way back in 1960-61 we “learned” to cook these cookies. I thought that the recipe was long lost over the decades and 7 moves. I’m happy to have found your Grandma B’s version which only varies a wee bit from the one I learned. We (my 7th grade cooking class and I) put some fresh lemon zest, a teaspoon or two of lemon juice and the cranberry sauce into a saucepan and heated it just until the gelatin in the cranberry sauce melted.. This made the cranberry filling easy to spread. As I also recall we also added a few chopped walnuts to the oatmeal mixture. All else seems to be the same.

    p.s. I learned to cook in Centerville, CA, now known as Fremont, CA.

  3. I’ve really been into cranberry recipes lately and these bars really look delicious! I’ll have to look for Red Diamond Tea to see if it’s available here. Thanks so much for sharing Grandma B’s Cranberry Oatmeal Bars recipe, Brandie!