Oatmeal Cranberry Squares

I’ve been sick with the stomach flu for the past few days so alas, I was unable to bake. The horror! But the best part about the flu? You get better and then baking is worth the wait 🙂 So this morning I was pondering what to make. It needed to be something healthy to help me re-coop from the past 3 days in bed, and also couldn’t be insanely sweet, because I highly doubt my stomach would enjoy that.

I decided on these little Oatmeal Cranberry Squares. They’re low in fat and they’ve got healthy oatmeal and cranberries as their main ingredients. The not too sugary centre gives these healthy treat just the right amount of sweetness to make them a perfect breakfast, snack or dessert. What a great way to start baking again!

In other news, it’s also been snowing like crazy over here. It’s really been getting me into to the christmas spirit (I know I know, it’s only November, but a girl can dream!). When I think of cranberries, I usually relate them to the holiday season. I’ll be sure to be whipping out this recipe once again when old saint nicholas comes to visit.  

 So if you’re craving something sweet, fruity and with a hint of cinnamon, but don’t want to throw a bunch of junk into your system, try these out!

Oatmeal Cranberry Squares

Ingredients:

Oatmeal Crust

–          1 cup all purpose flour

–          1 cup quick rolled oats

–          ½ brown sugar, packed

–          ¼ teaspoon salt

–          ¼ teaspoon baking soda

–          ½ teaspoon cinnamon

–          7 tablespoons melted butter

Filling

–          1 ¼ cup dried cranberries

–          ¾ cup light sour cream

–          ½ cup granulated sugar

–          2 tablespoons all purpose flour

–          1 teaspoon vanilla extract

–          1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

–          1 large egg white, lightly beaten

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease an 11 by 7 inch baking dish.

Prepare crust by combining flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Mix well. Drizzle the melted butter over top of the dry mixture; stir until mixture is crumbly. Put aside ½ cup of crumble and press the remaining oat mixture into the bottom of the greased baking dish.

To make filling, combine all filling ingredients in a medium sized bowl and mix well.

Spread the filling over the crust in the baking pan and sprinkle the remaining ½ cup oat mixture over top.

Bake for 40 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Makes approximately 24 squares.

Recipe Adapted from: Cooking Light