Oatmeal strawberry bars, flourless

These healthy oatmeal strawberry bars may be made without flour or a ton of sugar, but they’re full of deliciousness! You can meal prep them for a fast and simple dessert or snack (if you cut them in smaller pieces)! They’re something between a crumble and bars and are made with wholesome ingredients like fresh strawberries, maple syrup, nuts, coconut oil and oats. So, if you’re looking for a tasty, healthy flourless recipe to bake with fresh strawberries, make these!

Flourless Strawberry Bars

Once you’ve baked them, you can enjoy them as they are, as a friend, as an old enemy, OR with some ice cream or whipped cream or even yogurt. You can use coconut yogurt for a vegan version.

These are SO good. We think we said it, but we need to repeat it. We're actually eating them right now. Which almost never happens lately, because we've been trying to plan and am not publishing recipes right after we make them…but OMG, we just couldn’t keep these flourless strawberry bars a secret.

We actually made them yesterday and didn’t eat any, because we got busy and left them in the fridge overnight. Now we think everyone should do that, because they hold better.

We can’t tell you exactly how you’ll be able to stay away from them for a long time, maybe just get out of the house? That’s what we did.

And today in the morning – notable. Such a good treat for breakfast.

They’re gluten-free and vegan and pretty low in sugar, which is why we feel like they make a great breakfast idea too. The crust is crumbly and sweet and the filling is, well, juicy fresh strawberries. But we did sprinkle a little bit of vanilla sugar on top. Like a teaspoon – was solid.

Strawberry Bars Ingredients

To make these healthy oatmeal strawberry bars, you’ll need these wholesome ingredients:

• Oats. What a surprise right? Is there a baking recipe labeled “healthy” without oats in it? We don’t think it exists. We read somewhere that oats actually cancel out all the sugar you put into the recipe too. And they have 0 calories. Maybe it was just a dream. However, oats are actually a pretty healthy grain that contains fiber, protein, a prebiotic called beta glucan that can benefit your heart and gut health and special antioxidants named avenanthramides that help to reduce inflammation and reduce oxidative stress. Make sure to get gluten-free oats if you can’t tolerate gluten.
• Almond flour. And that’s blanched almond flour. It’s essential here, as it makes the crust and the topping crumbly. 2026 Update: You can also use whole raw cashews and process them together with the oats and flax into flour.
• Flaxseed. Now this is optional, but we've gotten into the habit lately to add a few tablespoons of flaxseed to most of our baking recipes, as they help to add some omega-3’s.
• Coconut oil. You can also use butter if you’re not vegan – that’s what we did last time we were taking the photos.
• Maple syrup. You can probably also use a sugar-free sweetener – although we have no experience and recommendations here.
• Vanilla. It’s optional, but we highly recommend adding some sort of vanilla on top of the strawberries.
• Strawberries. Last, but definitely not least, we need fresh strawberries!

How it comes together

You’ll need a small baking pan, some parchment paper, a nut grinder or a high-speed blender and the ingredients we just mentioned.

Wash and chop the strawberries into chunks. Surprisingly, our ripe-looking strawberries weren’t that sweet, but even they did the job. And, even if you’ve got some bruised strawberries, don’t discard them – they will do great in the recipe.

before after

Since we’re using no regular flour, we’ll grind the oats and the flaxseed (also cashews if you don’t have almond flour). You can use a nut grinder or a blender to do this. Simply put the seeds and the oats into the blender cup and process. They’ll turn into flour within seconds.

Next, combine all of the ingredients for the crust in a bowl. Melt the coconut oil / or if using – butter and add the ground oats, flaxseed, almond flour (ground cashews), maple syrup and the coconut oil.

At first, mix with a fork and once the mixture thickens and becomes more like a dough, use your hands to divide it into two parts – we’ll use two-thirds of the dough to make the crust (the bottom) and the other third for the topping of the bars.

At this point, preheat the oven: 350F or 180C.

Then, line a small baking pan with parchment paper and start pressing the dough for the bottom with your hands to make the crust.

spread strawberries add vanilla

Once it’s flat and firm, top with the strawberry chunks, spread them evenly all over. We recommend avoiding making this layer too thick, because it might get too heavy for the crust to handle. Sprinkle some vanilla sugar or whatever type of vanilla you have over the strawberries.

Then shape the crumbs with the rest of the dough and spread all over the berries. That’s it, the layers are done!

Now it’s time to bake! Do it for around 20-25 minutes or until the crumb and crust look golden brown. It took our oven around 22 minutes, so make sure to keep an eye at around the 18th minute. We know, you’re impressed by our precision.

Let It Cool

Once the bars are all baked and golden, take out of the oven and don’t touch, don’t even look at them to not get tempted. In the beginning, they’re tender and can fall apart pretty easily. They needs some time to firm up. So leave for at least 30 minutes to cool off. We actually recommend to also leave the strawberry bars in the fridge for about 30 minutes (best overnight).

That’s when you need to take a knife and cut the strawberry crumble into bars!

• Yield: 8
• Prep: 10 minutes
• Cook: 20 minutes
• Total: 30 minutes

Ingredients

Crust and Topping

• 1 cup oats
• 2 tbsp flaxseed
• 1 cup almond flour*
• 2 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• pinch of salt

Additionally:

• 1 cup of fresh strawberries, cut in cubes
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar (our strawberries weren’t very sweet)

Method

1. Wash and chop the strawberries that you will want to use for the recipe into chunks.
2. Grind the oats and the flaxseed. You can use a nut grinder or a blender to do this. Simply put the seeds and the oats into the cup and process. They’ll turn into flour within seconds.
3. Combine all of the ingredients for the crust in a bowl. Melt the coconut oil / or if using – butter and add the ground oats, flaxseed, almond flour, maple syrup and the coconut oil.
4. Mix with a fork and once the mixture thickens and becomes more like a dough - give it a taste and adjust for sweetness. Once you've done it, use your hands to divide the dough into two parts – we’ll use two-thirds of it to make the crust (the bottom layer) and the other third for the topping of the bars.
5. Preheat the oven – 350F or 180C.
6. Then line a small baking pan with parchment paper and start pressing the dough for the bottom with your hands to make the crust (make sure to not spread the dough too thinly - it will work even if you don't cover the entire pan)
7. Once the first layer is flat and firm, top it with the strawberry chunks, and spread them evenly all over. Avoid making this layer too thick, because it might get too heavy for the crust.
8. Sprinkle some vanilla sugar or whatever type of vanilla you have over the strawberries.
9. Then shape crumbs with the rest of the dough and spread all over the berries. That’s it, the layers are done!
10. Bake for around 20-25 minutes or until the top and crust look golden brown. It took our oven around 22 minutes, so make sure to keep an eye at around the 18th minute.
11. Take out of the oven and then out of the pan and let cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes. Cut in bars and store in the fridge for up to 3 days. The bars will firm up when colder and are going to hold together better.

Notes

* Update 2026: Last time we were making the strawberry bars, we didn't have any almond flour, so we added 1 cup of raw cashews to the blender together with 1 1/2 cups oats, 2 tbsp flax. We also added 3 - 3 1/2 tbsp of maple syrup to the crust (to taste). If you have other nuts, they will probably work in the recipe too, providing a slightly different flavor.