Strawberry Crumble Bars with Bananas
Strawberry Crumble Bars are a fun way to use up fresh strawberries!
Strawberry Banana Crumble Bars
These fresh fruit bars are a delicious way to use up those strawberries in the fridge. I love having fresh fruit around to snack on, but of course with only a couple of us at home now we end up having some that isn't used up!
These Strawberry Crumble Bars are part dessert and part breakfast or snack! They aren't overly sweet since you have some of the tartness from the fruit, but they are easy to serve and delicious for dessert too.
I know if I need to use up my strawberries and bananas, I can just take these along with me to church and the pan will be gone shortly!
Make Your Strawberry Crumble Bars:
The crust on this recipe is easy to make and has all your traditional crust ingredients. You will actually make one mixture that will work for the crust as well as topping, and then your fruit will be sandwiched in between those layers.
I love that the crust contains oats. Oats and fruit go so well together in breakfast recipes– so adding oats makes these bars qualify as a breakfast, right?? 🙂
Tips for a Great Crumble Crust:
If you haven't yet made a crumble topping, don't worry! It's really not as difficult as it sounds like.
The trick is to use cold butter! Not room temp and for sure not softened. That will end up giving you a dough.
Take a pastry cutter or a potato smasher, or if you don't have either one of those, just a fork to cut in the butter. Add right in to the flour mixture, and start with larger chunks. The colder the butter, the better!
Start chopping in the chunks of butter into your flour mixture roughly, being careful not to mix butter all the way. You want to keep the butter “crumbling” into your flour rather than being mixed like a cookie dough.
Another tip is not to mix this by hand. Although it's tempting to just get your hands in there to mix it faster, the warmth of your hands will actually melt the butter just enough to keep it from crumbling properly. My tip is to just keep going with your fork or pastry cutter. Eventually you should have a nice crumble texture!
Fruit Layer:
If you have a handy strawberry coring tool, definitely use that! Or, if the kids want to help in the kitchen this is a great way to get them involved with cooking and cut down some of the time spent on this recipe.
A cutting board and set of paring knives is helpful if you don't have one for slicing fruit.
Next, slice your bananas and add in the sugar. The bananas will soften as they sit. You can chop them in larger slices and then roughly mash together with the strawberries.
If you aren't a fan of bananas in recipes, you can opt to use smaller pieces or a smaller amount of banana.
Mix and slightly chop the banana slices with a spoon until they are about equal in size with the strawberry slices. You should end up with a nice “filling” for your bars!
Putting your Strawberry Crumble Bars Together:
After you have your crust mixture, your crumble topping mixture, and your filling, go ahead and slice the second banana and set aside. You will add this on top of the filling. Keep in mind, it won't mess up the recipe if you're not a huge fan of banana and don't want to add the extra fruit. 🙂
Press the crust mixture into a 9 x 13 glass dish or casserole pan. I always give it a little bit of non-stick spray coating, but parchment isn't needed for these bars.
The crust is more like a cookie dough, and should come off the pan without sticking terribly.
Add your fruit filling next! I just love how bright these bars look. If you always loved fruit pies but just aren't a pie-maker, this recipe is such a great way to have all those flavors without the extra work of a pie crust!
If you're adding the second banana, spread those chunks evenly across the pan. Then, it's time to top with your crumble!
It's OK if the crumble isn't entirely uniform. Honestly I've never been able to make a very pretty crumble or struesel mix! Unless it is a pre-made one from a boxed muffin mix of course. 😀
As long as there aren't large chunks of dough in your crumble, it should be fine. You can break up the larger chunks by hand. As you can see in my photo, you just want enough to cover the pan and have some of the topping in each bite.
Bake and Serve:
Your Strawberry Banana Bars should be ready to eat as soon as they are baked and cooled. However, if you prefer your fruit bars to be served cold, go ahead and cool to room temperature and then refrigerate till chilled.
I would definitely refrigerate any leftovers even if you prefer these to be served warm, just because of the amount of fruit.
I hope you get the chance to make these! These strawberries bake into a delicious layer that is so much better than any fruit bar you will find at the store!
Print your Strawberry Crumble Bars recipe here:
Strawberry Banana Crumble Bars
These easy bars have all the goodness of fresh strawberries and bananas!
Ingredients
Crumble:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups Regular Oats (not instant)
- 1 cup Granulated sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 1/2 cups Cold Butter, Cubed
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
Fruit Filling
- 3 Cups Fresh Strawberries, diced
- 1 1/2 cups banana (about 3 medium bananas), diced
- 1/3 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 2 Tbsp Cornstarch
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x13" baking dish and set aside.
Prepare the crumble: In a bowl mix the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.
Add the butter and mix with a pastry cutter or fork until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
In a separate bowl combine the strawberries with the banana, sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and vanilla extract.
R mash the fruit and stir to combine. Set aside.
Press half of the crumble dough into the prepared baking dish.
Top with the filling and crumble the remaining dough on top of the strawberry banana filling.
Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and crispy on top.
Notes
Serve warm, or if preferred, you can allow to cool and refrigerate for 1-2 hours to serve cold.
Cover and Refrigerate leftovers. Best if served immediately, but should keep 1-2 days.
Nutrition Information
Yield
12Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 460Total Fat 24gSaturated Fat 15gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 61mgSodium 226mgCarbohydrates 58gFiber 4gSugar 27gProtein 5g
If you like our Strawberry Banana Bars ,this Foolproof Tropical Fruit Tart recipe is the perfect easy to make dessert. You can try it with different fruit to see which one your family likes best!
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