Creamy Lemon Oat Bars
(6 votes, average: 4.83 out of 5) 
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You may as well double this recipe when you make these creamy morsels of goodness.
Notice that crunchy, granola crust on the bottom? See that soft, crumbly, granola topping clinging on to the lemony cream center? I’m telling you right now, double up, because these creamy lemon oat bars won’t last long.
The original recipe comes out of a Betty Crocker Cookie book.
HERE’S ALL IT TAKE TO MAKE THEM
- 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Heat oven to 375F degrees. Coat 8×8 inch pan with non-stick cooking spray. Mix milk, lemon zest and lemon juice in medium bowl until thickened; set aside. Mix remaining ingredients in medium bowl until crumbly.
Press half of the crumbly mixture in pan; bake about 10 minutes or until set.
Spread lemon milk mixture over baked crust. Sprinkle remaining crumbly mixture over the lemon milk mixture, press down gently. Bake about 20 minutes or until edges are golden brown and center is set but soft. Cool completely. Cut 4 rows by 4 rows.
This dessert is mildly sweet and the lemon is just right; not too lemony. The little bit of salt in the recipe makes for a sweet and salty flavor that makes you want to eat another one. That’s why they don’t last long. Try making a batch over the weekend and see for yourself.
I could not disagree more with Oat's opinion on using oak. Oak is the worlds most common wood for ...
"O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree
how lovely are your artificially colored branches..." 
Comment by Francie on 24 January 2008:
Great. First you made me spit out my wine when I saw that pic and now I just chipped my tooth trying to take a bit out of the screen. I hope you’re proud of yourself, Jill.
Francie
Comment by Elizabeth on 24 January 2008:
That. Looks. DELICIOUS! Does it have to be sea salt though? I keep table salt and kosher salt on hand, but I’ve never bought sea salt. Can you explain the difference?
Comment by Sorina on 25 January 2008:
You have a very nice blog, good post…keep up the good job
Comment by kellypea on 25 January 2008:
These look really chewy and delicious. YUM!
Comment by Jill on 25 January 2008:
You can use table salt, of course.
Physically, the differences between kosher salt, sea salt, and table salt are the size of the salt crystals. Kosher being the largest. Table salt’s the finest and easiest to dissolve.
Chemically, they consist of 99 percent sodium chloride, and are thus essentially identical in makeup.
This last part, I’m afraid to tackle; flavor. All natural salt tastes the same. ;(
It’s the texture, the size of the salt crystals that linger in our mouth that affects how much salt we taste.
There are smoked salts which is Kosher salt that has been smoked.
Sea salt that has a color is due to the minerals in the water where it was processed. These minerals flavor and color the salt slightly, but lose their flavor in cooking. It’s said to use them in the last seasoning stage before serving.
And finally, table salt simply has the finest grain size. Therefore, you can fit more table salt in a teaspoon than you can Kosher or Sea salt, resulting in a saltier recipe.
After reading from Food Network: Culinary Q&A, Morton Salt, and Healthline.com, this was the shortest explaination I could give. I have edited my recipe to simply use salt.
I used sea salt, because it’s something new in my cooking. I use Kosher salt, too. Table salt mostly sits on my table. I’ll be completely honest. I feel fancy having different salts, and I’m learning how to use them in my cooking.
Check out http://www.mortonsalt.com/salt_guide/index.html
There’s 3 charts on salt; characteristics, uses and a conversion table.
Thanks for the great question, and keeping me on my toes.
Comment by Audrey on 31 January 2008:
I love lemon bars. This has the added oats. They look delicious. I’ve printed it out, we’re going to try them this weekend. Thanks
Comment by Jill on 1 February 2008:
I wondered what taste difference there would be if I used FAT FREE Condensed Milk in this recipe.
For a proper comparison, I purchased one can each of Fat Free and Regular condensed milk.
Straight from the can, I could NOT taste any difference. It must be the amount of sugar that masks any difference.
There’s only 3 grams of fat between them.
Fat Free is made from nonfat milk. The regular condensed milk is made from whole milk.
I made up two separate batches of lemon bars and shared them out to friends. No one could tell a difference.
Next time, I’m going to substitute the butter for applesauce in the crust and see what happens.
Comment by Jill on 1 February 2008:
On the second batch of lemon bars I baked, I increased the Lemon Zest from 2 teaspoons to 3 teaspoons. The creamy center did end up with a stronger lemon flavor without tasting sour.
Comment by Jill on 5 February 2008:
They’re not chewy. They’re crunchy on the bottom, thick & CREAMY in the center with a crumble oat topping.
Feels like… crunch, crunch, lemon cream, oat crumble, crunch, lemon cream, oat crumble and swallow.
They taste the best after chilling an hour or so in the frig; the lemon stands out more.
Comment by Jill on 5 February 2008:
Francie,
Do you own an Apple or PC? You can’t eat a PC. (hardy har har)
Comment by Bill Meyer on 14 February 2008:
I made these the other day. My wife loved them as did I. I love anything with oats.
Pingback by Simple Daily Recipes > Tinfoil Chef on 19 February 2008:
[...] first introduction to the site was “Creamy Lemon Oat Bars“, The first thing I saw was the picture that made me want to run to the kitchen and make up a [...]
Comment by moss on 30 March 2008:
Also about the salt, a lot of table salts say they are “iodized” this means they have iodine in them. I’m not sure if this would affect a recipe or not, but it’s just another little difference in salts.
I also prefer sea salt, there’s something different about the flavor that I like. It probably has something to do with the fact that I buy it in the bigger crystals and grind it with a mortar and pestle by hand and not a machine or grinder, so I’m probably getting all different sizes of crystals left when I use it.
Comment by moss on 30 March 2008:
Oh I forgot to put in that these look delicious and I can’t wait to try them ^_^ I love anything lemon!
Comment by Jill on 31 March 2008:
Hi Moss! So glad to hear from you. I completely dropped the bit about iodized salt, thanks for catching it.I’m very tempted, though I’m not sure how to pull it off, to have a blind salt tasting and capture it on video.I want to know if folks can REALLY taste the differences between sea salt, gray salt, kosher salt and table salt other than the look and feel. If they were all the same granular size, would folks taste a difference?Does anybody remember those old Pepsi challenge commercials?
Comment by Marny on 7 April 2008:
If you try the applesauce for butter experiment, will you post the results? Also, do you think it’s ok to use whole wheat flour?
Lastly, do you think these would freeze ok? I’m afraid if I make them and don’t immediately put them in the freezer, I’ll end up eating the whole batch!
Comment by Jill on 8 April 2008:
HI Marny!
I did make an all around healthier version and we didn’t like it.
I used NONFAT sweetened condensed milk (no taste difference there) I would use it again.
The heavier whole wheat flour taste distracted us from the light lemon dessert idea we enjoyed.
The applesauce didn’t give the harder granola crust we enjoyed with the butter.
As for freezing, you try it out and tell me! This recipe only fills an 8inch x 8inch pan. If that’s too much, share them with your friends, they’ll love you for it.
Comment by Jess on 22 April 2008:
This recipe sounds so delicious, but I almost fell over when I saw how sweet it was. I would definitely cut it into bite size pieces and invite a few people around for coffee. Sometimes less is more.
Comment by Jill@SimpleDailyRecipes.com on 22 April 2008:
Hi Jess!
I understand not everyone has the same tastes, that’s actually great!
The amount of fresh lemon juice and zest, along with the oat crust counters the sweetness in the condensed milk. The dark brown sugar adds depth in the flavor of the crust. You could probably cut it back without much notice.
If there’s an alternative to sweetened condensed milk, I don’t know about it. Making a lemon curd might work, but that’s sugary too.
I highly recommend inviting friends over to help you eat these bars. I would make two batches, one using this exact recipe and the other altered with less sweetness and see how the crowd prefers it.
I would be very interested to know what you altered and how you made this recipe fit your food lifestyle.
Comment by Julie on 13 July 2008:
I love lemons. I love lemons more than chocolate! (shh! Don’t tell the Easter Bunny!) And your picture looked so fabulous - like I could see how creamy and crunchy it would feel in my mouth. So I made them, and I loved them. Love love llluuurrve!
But tonight I did something different. I had a brainwave. Instead of putting the other half of topping on the top, I put a layer of thinly sliced pineapple, sprinkling it with brown sugar. I didn’t put lemon zest into the condensed milk either, just the juice. It was incredible. It was one of the most amazing things I ever put into my mouth!
Comment by Jill@SimpleDailyRecipes on 15 July 2008:
I like the way you think Julie!
I’m assuming you used fresh pineapple. I’ve never seen thin pineapples slices come out of can…
I’m going to try this out and share it with my neighbors. This sounds too interesting to pass up. I’ll be reporting back here.
Has anyone else made these bars BETTER that I need to know about? I love to spoil my neighbors with experimental desserts.
Comment by Oat on 17 September 2008 (4 weeks ago):
Hey! Oat bars. lol!
Comment by Jill on 17 September 2008 (4 weeks ago):
Now I’m laughing! harharhar…snort!
Would that make you a “Quick” Oat? or are you the “Old Fashion” type?
teeehehheheee
Comment by Oat on 18 September 2008 (4 weeks ago):
Steel cut.
Comment by Oat on 18 September 2008 (4 weeks ago):
Seriously, these look good.