These Oatmeal Lemon Creme Bars are bound to be your new favorite! With a tart, yet sweet lemon filling and a streusel oatmeal topping, these are hard to put down!
Happy Friday, y’all! I’m really excited to share today’s recipe with all of you because it’s part of a big, fat secret I’ve been holding in for the past month! See, awhile back I got together with a big group of awesome food bloggers to participate in a fun “Freaky Friday” recipe swap. Basically, each of us was secretly assigned another blog to read through and find a recipe to make and post about. We weren’t allowed to tell each other whose blog we had or what we were making from their site! Until today that is… 🙂
Lucky for me, I got to choose from an incredible collection of recipes from Debi of Life Currents. Debi is a vegetarian blogger who focuses on using healthy, whole food ingredients in her cooking. Trying to decide which of her recipes to make was SUPER difficult! There were so many amazing choices, like this Polenta Pizza that she recently posted, or this Tomato Parmesan Slow Cooker Soup, which I’m definitely going to try out soon. She also has a recipe for Cinnamon Sore Throat Tea that I’m filing away for all of those sick days in the future!
What I ultimately set my sight on, though, were these incredible looking Oatmeal Lemon Creme Bars. The moment I spotted them while checking out Debi’s blog, I knew I had to make them! I can never turn down a lemon bar, and that crumbly oatmeal topping just seemed to be calling out my name!
So I gave in of course, and just made them. 😉 Y’all, these lasted all of 24 hours at our house. I did give a couple to one of my friends, and my hubby took one in to one of his coworkers, but for the most part…. they were devoured by us alone!
If you’d like to see more of the recipes that were secretly swapped today by the other 18 bloggers, you can check them out below! Just click the pictures in the link-up to take you right to their page. 🙂
Oatmeal Lemon Creme Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter,, softened
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ¼ teaspoon lemon extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a square 8x8 baking pan and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer over medium speed until crumbly.
- In a separate smaller mixing bowl whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. Add oats to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well.
- Press 3/4 of the oat mixture into the prepared pan. In a small bowl mix together sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon extract. Spread evenly on top of the oat mixture in the pan. Top with the remaining oat mixture.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Let cool, then refrigerate for 30 minutes or until set. Cut into bars and store in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Freaky Friday was brought to you today by all of these fabulous bloggers!
Michelle from A Dish of Daily Life
Debi from Life Currents
Terra from Café Terra
Nicole from Pic-Nic
Lori from Who Needs A Cape?
Kris from Big Rigs ‘n Lil’ Cookies
Jenny from Honey & Birch
Candi from The Devilish Dish
Dini from Giramuk’s Kitchen – Food & Recipe Blog
Michaela from An Affair from the Heart
Brandi from Aunt Bee’s Recipes
Justine from Full Belly Sisters
Sandra from The Foodie Affair
Kelly from Wildflour’s Cottage Kitchen
Christie from A Kitchen Hoor
Ashlyn from Belle of the Kitchen
Angela from LeMoine Family Kitchen
Sarah from The Magical Slow Cooker
Christine from Christine It
Tana says
Just wondering if you really need the lemon extract? I have all the ingredients except for that, will it just not be as strong of a lemon taste?
Ashlyn says
The extract really gives it a good lemon flavor, but you could leave it out if you don’t mind it being a lot lighter in flavor.
Amy | The Cook Report says
That lemon filling looks so good, I can’t wait to try making these!
Jane Saunders says
I can almost taste the lovely lemon flavour just looking at the pictures. Gorgeous.
Katie says
I love the combination of bright lemon, and comforting oatmeal. These are delicious!
Saima says
Wow! Your oatmeal lemon cookies look fantastic. I love the crunchiness of oatmeal and the cream filling is to die for!
Andrea Metlika says
You took a lemon bar and upped it! Can’t wait to make these.
Stef says
Could I use quick oats for this ?
Ashlyn says
Hi Stef, I haven’t tried it with quick oats before, but I think it should work ok. Let me know if you try it!
Gillian Hunter says
I made these tonight and they are absolutely delicious. We couldn’t even wait for them to cool before we tasted them. My daughter begged for seconds but I’m making her wait til they come out the fridge. The only thing I did differently was to omit the lemon extract. The one I had tasted and smelled like Lemon Pledge. So I just upped the lemon zest and it was like I said, delicious. Thanks for sharing. Btw…next time I’m going to try some cream cheese in the lemon batter…..YUM!
Ashlyn says
So glad to hear that y’all enjoyed these, Gillian! They are one of our favorites!
Gillian says
I love it that there are no eggs in this dessert. I love lemon desserts and since becoming allergic to eggs, its very difficult to find recipes that I can eat. Making this tonight. Thanks for sharing.
Thao @ In Good Flavor says
Yum! This looks really delicious! I’m loving the lemon flavor.
Quinn Caudill says
These look great. I will be pinning to my browni, blondies and bars board and also sharing on reddit. Freaky Friday sounds like fun. Have a great weekend.
Dini @ Giramuk's Kitchen says
YUM! I absolutely love any Lemon dessert! Looks absolutely amazing 🙂
Ashlyn says
Lemon desserts are the best! Thanks girl!
Kris ~ Big Rigs 'n Lil' Cookies says
I am so definitely making these! Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!
Ashlyn says
Thanks Kris! You’ll love these!
Christie says
They look so creamy and delicious. I can’t wait to make them. I’ll have to make them and take them to work because the hubs isn’t a fan of lemon desserts.
Ashlyn says
I bet your coworkers will love you for it, Christie!
Sarah says
Oh these sound so good! Pinning to make later. 🙂
Ashlyn says
Thanks Sarah!
Justine says
I love all of Debi’s recipes—this one looks amazing!
Ashlyn says
YES her recipes are wonderful! I had so much fun looking through her blog!
Aunt Bee says
Imagine my delight when I was DROOLING over these bars and realized I HAVE EVERYTHING on hand to make them with!!! They look AWESOME!
Ashlyn says
Yay!!! I love when that happens! Enjoy them, girl!
Sandra - The Foodie Affair says
I just printed the recipe! I love when I have all the ingredients and can get baking right away. What a great blog you have Ashlyn! Loved peeking at your site. You took me back over a decade! My family also had a tour (actually a couple) in Hawaii. Such a great place to raise young children. I hope you will look back fondly as my family does.
Ashlyn says
Awww thank you, Sandra! We are loving Hawaii! We’ve got less than a year left now so we are trying to soak it all in. I love meeting other military folks in the blogging world!
Michelle @ A Dish of Daily Life says
I love Debi’s blog. I’ve made some of her recipes and they are all fabulous! Now I have a new one to try…these bars look great too!
Ashlyn says
Yes, her blog is awesome! There are so many recipes that I can’t wait to try! You will love these bars for sure!
Lori Who Needs A Cape? says
Seriously drooling over these bars, I love everything about them! Great post!
Ashlyn says
Thank you, Lori!
Debi @ Life Currents says
I’m so glad you liked the recipe you made. And, you’ll love the Tomato Soup you mentioned as well. Oh, and that Sore Throat Tea will make you happy when you need it. This was lots of fun to participate in, thanks for taking a look around my website, and I loved getting to know all the fun bloggers involved!
Cheers, Debi @ Life Currents
Ashlyn says
Thank you, Debi! It was an honor to get to look through all of your lovely recipes and then to make these wonderful bars! My hubby thanks you a million times over! 🙂
Michaela ~ An Affair from the Heart says
I don’t think these would make it 24 hours here – we are serious lemon addicts — this recipe is scrumptious! I can’t WAIT to give it a try!
Ashlyn says
Y’all will definitely enjoy these, Michaela! 🙂
Candi says
These look yummy! Can’t wait to give these a try!
Ashlyn says
Thank you, Candi!
Jenny B @ Honey and Birch says
I want one of these bars right now! I don’t think these would last even 24 hours in my house!
Ashlyn says
Haha! It was a miracle that they made it that long in ours!
angela says
I love everything about these!!! I am a HUGE fan of lemon is desserts so this is just perfection with the oatmeal topping!
Ashlyn says
Thanks Angela! Lemon desserts really are the best!