Creamy Lemon Oat Bars 
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 TAKES
- 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 375ºF degrees. Coat 8x8 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.
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
Francie,
Do you own an Apple or PC? You can’t eat a PC. (hardy har har)
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?
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.
You have a very nice blog, good post…keep up the good job
These look really chewy and delicious. YUM!
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.
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
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.
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.
I made these the other day. My wife loved them as did I. I love anything with oats.
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.
Oh I forgot to put in that these look delicious and I can’t wait to try them ^_^ I love anything lemon!
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?
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Hey! Oat bars. lol!
Now I’m laughing! harharhar…snort!
Would that make you a “Quick” Oat? or are you the “Old Fashion” type?
teeehehheheee
Steel cut.
Seriously, these look good.
Jill,
These Lemon Oat bars looks so good. I never knew Granola could look so delicious!!! I’ve got everything on hand to make these and I love to find a great recipe, be inspired and seeking that (almost) instant gratification where I can just go make it ’cause all the ingredients are staples of my pantry.
Thanks for all the great work you do on GCC. I sent this particular one to many of my friends to check out! You and Charles do such a good job managing this site for all of us!
I am Thankful for you guys!!
THANK YOU ComfortCook! Meeting great food bloggers such as yourself, makes it worth all the hard work!
Oh yeah, about the salt discussion…I am a big lover of salt (I like to retain my fluid! Ha!) and I think I can tell a difference in Sea Salt, Iodized table salt and Kosher salt. I use Kosher for cooking, table salt or Iodized salt for baking or when I want to cook something I grew up with and want it to taste like my Mom’s version. I usually finish meat and vegetable dishes with a sprinkle (crank?) of Sea Salt. I ALWAYS use Sea Salt on any raw vegetable or salad. I would probably flunk a blind taste test…but in my pickled little brain…i think I can tell a difference! I’m like Jill..I love having different salts availble..it makes me feel like I’m more culinarily gifted than I really am!
I’m glad you brought up salt, Lisa.
I read somewhere that table salt is preferred by professional bakers because it dissolves better in baked goods. That makes sense.
I did notice that kosher salt makes my flour tortilla dough look funny. Also, the tortillas don’t have the same flavor as when I dissolve table salt into warm water before adding it to the flour mixture.
We had these creamy lemon oat bars when we went to see the Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley Oklahoma and man they were good!
Yummmm! These sound delicious and a nice way to play in the kitchen! As always thanks!
Wow, these look delicious! I’m going to have to give these a go as soon as my holiday baking is done (already promised specifics, or I’d be making these instead!).
Good morning Amber!
These bars are quick to pull together. You can easily squeeze in a batch between baking and save them all for yourself. ;D