Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

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Berry season is right around the corner. Well, almost.

I go crazy for berries when they come into season and sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach. I buy a pint of raspberries, a couple pints of blueberries, and there was that buy one-get one sale on strawberries.

Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

Before I know it I’m up to my eyeballs in fresh berries and need to start finding creative uses for them including baking with them.

But here’s a little secret, I didn’t make this recipe with fresh berries because it’s not berry season, yet I was craving something baked with berries.

Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

I had a bag of mixed berries burning a hole in my freezer and the coconut flakes and white chocolate chips that I incorporated were burning a hole in my cupboard so I tossed them in, too.

Berry lovers, this one’s for you.

Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

The base layer of the bars is a combination of whole rolled oats, cake mix, butter, and an egg.

That doughy layer is topped with coconut and white chocolate chips and baked until juicy perfection.

Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

These bars turned out ridiculously gooey, sticky, and juicy from the natural berry juices.

The sweetened condensed milk made them oh-so-creamy and sweet.

Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

Berries ‘n sweet cream is always a good combo.

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Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars (with Vegan and Gluten Free Suggestions)

Makes 16 bars

1 2/3 cups vanilla, white, or yellow cake mix (I used 1 cup white, 2/3 cup yellow based on what I had open)

1 cup old fashioned whole rolled oats

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups berries (I used a frozen berry blend of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and cherries; use what you have, fresh or frozen)

1/3 cup white chocolate chips, optional*

1/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut flakes, optional*

1 can (14-ounces) sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a 9-by-9 inch pan by lining it with aluminum foil and then spraying it with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, oats, butter, egg, vanilla and mix either with a mixer, with a spoon, or with your hands, kneading it together. The batter will be thick, tacky, and may be difficult to combine, but keep stirring or use your fingers and knead it together, adding a splash of water if absolutely necessary in order to combine. Press the dough it into the prepared pan. It will be tacky, sticky, and a bit tricky to work with, but keep pressing, spreading, and finessing it.

Sprinkle the berries, then sprinkle the white chocolate chips and coconut, evenly over the top of the dough. Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over the top, using a spatula to gently spread and even it if necessary. Bake for 25 to 29 minutes, or until edges of bars begin to barely brown and pull away slightly from the sides of the pan, taking care not to overbake. Note that the middle will not seem very well set and although it will be bubbling, the middle will be jiggly and juicy upon removing from oven and that is okay, you want to keep these gooey. They will continue to set up more after they have cooled but don’t be alarmed if you cannot get perfect squares as these are made to be soft and gooey. Allow bars to cool well before slicing and serving. Optionally, dust with confectioner’s sugar, top with whipped topping or ice cream before serving. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze for up to three months.

To keep vegan, use a vegan cake mix, a flax egg, vegan white chocolate chips, and coconut milk (full-fat), sweetened to taste with agave/maple syrup/sugar, in place of the sweetened condensed milk. To keep gluten-free, use gluten free cake mix. Take care all ingredients used are suitable for your dietary needs.

*If you do not like white chocolate, you can omit entirely or use milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips. Use slivered almonds in place of the coconut flakes if you don’t like coconut.

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I used some white cake mix and some yellow cake mix because I had a couple bags open from other baking projects. Doesn’t everyone have 10 flavors of cake mix on hand and at least 6 boxes open at any given time? Okay, don’t answer that.

Use what you have, like, or have open: vanilla, white, yellow, strawberry would be phenomenal, and I could even see lemon cake mix working in these (maybe half lemon, half white).

Spread of ingredients such as white cake mix, white chocolate chips, berries, and oats

Make the dough with the oats, cake mix, egg, vanilla, and press it into the prepared pan.

Top with berries (fresh or frozen, any combination and variety you like), top with white chocolate chips and coconut flakes (or other toppings such as semi-sweet chocolate chips, slivered almonds, other nuts, toffee bits, or toppings you like)

Pre-baking Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

Flood!

Pre-baking Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars flooded with ingredients

And then bake them, taking care not to overbake. These will look very gooey and underbaked even after the suggested baking time, but take them out of the oven anyway and let them cool. They will firm up considerably upon cooling, but they are still a very ooey, gooey, messy dessert.

The best kind.

Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

They rival these Caramel and Chocolate Gooey Bars (GF with Vegan adaptation) in terms of their gooey, messy, sticky, hard to cut and hold their shape because they’re so juicy factor.

Caramel and Chocolate Gooey Bars

Look at the drippy sweetened condensed milk and berry juice. I wish I could bottle that and drink it any time I need a little pick-me-up.

Why bother with dry cardboard-like desserts when you could have gooey? I will never understand that or who buys $5 scones from fancy bakeries that look like blended woodchips with water added and baked. Overpriced hockey pucks. No thanks.

Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

I think these would be a pretty baby shower, bridal shower, engagement party, brunch, or girly birthday party dessert. Regardless, they’re sweet and very creamy with a variety of textures going on from the berries, oats, cake, coconut, and chocolate chips.

A little bit of everything in every bite. Just the way I like my desserts.

Creamy Mixed Berry White Chocolate Crumble Bars

Another pink, springtime, brunch, bridal shower recipe are these Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting. The cookies call for half a box of strawberry cake mix; use the other half to make today’s creamy berry bars.

Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

Other related Berry Recipes:

Strawberry recipes here

Microwave Strawberry Vanilla Mug Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Glaze – No actual cake mix needed, and many people have written to say they’ve made this successfully both vegan and GF. The best use of 90 seconds of time, ever.

Microwave Strawberry Vanilla Mug Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Glaze

Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cakes – Vegan, GF, two minutes. Substitute any kind of berry for the blueberries

Microwave Blueberry Banana Oat Cake

Mixed Berry Clafoutis – This recipe does not get as much love as it deserves. It’s as easy as making pancake batter despite the fancy name. Make the batter in a blender or Vita and it literally takes 30 seconds to make, pour over berries, and bake. It’s incredibly decadent, rich, and I describe it as fancy-tasting custard-meets-flan-meets-pudding.

Mixed Berry Clafouti

Wash it all down with…

Strawberries and Cream Smoothie (Vegan, GF)

Strawberries and Cream Smoothie

Coconut Water Champagne Fruit Punch (Vegan, Gluten Free, Soy Free, No Sugar Added, Small Batch)

Coconut Water Champagne Fruit Punch

Do you like berries?

I love them! Raspberries are truly a delicacy. My dad had raspberry bushes when I was growing up and for about 330 days a year we had none.

For about one month of the year, we had more berries than we could eat and my mom would bake with them, make bars, breads, muffins, crumbles, can raspberry jam, make freezer jam, and we’d give away what we couldn’t use. I could use some homegrown raspberries right about now, though.

Blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, cannot go wrong with any of those, either.

What are your favorite berries and how do you like to use them?

Aside from just eating with them as is, I’m always looking for fun new recipes to try.

Thanks for the Kitchen Aid 7-Quart Stand Mixer entries

And the new Tofu Xpress Tofu Press Giveaway entries

About the Author

Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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Please note: I have only made the recipe as written, and cannot give advice or predict what will happen if you change something. If you have a question regarding changing, altering, or making substitutions to the recipe, please check out the FAQ page for more info.

Comments

  1. Why want this recipe print? Can you please send me a printable version?
    Thanks so much…
    Sandra

    1. Click on the PRINT button within the recipe card section and it will print out easily, enjoy!

  2. I don’t usually stop to make comments when I see recipes that get my attention but I just had to stop and drool over and over again over this one, my eyes just popped when I saw the pics! My goodness I have not made it yet but my taste buds are dancing with excitement and anticipation for that day. This looks wicked AWESOME!!! Good job!

  3. Dear Averie,
    These bars looked so delicious that I just had to make them! Unfortunately, I must remain gluten free due to health problems, so I used King Arthur’s GF yellow cake mix, following the recipe given. I also live at almost 8,000 ft. in the Rocky Mountains, in CO. The altitude is my additional baking challenge! I made the bars closely following the recipe & it was a mushy mess, although the flavor was great! I even cooked them 20 minutes longer. I realize that you cannot predict what might happen with the altitude here in the mountains, but I was wondering if you tried to make these bars GF at sea level & whether it worked? I’m trying to rule out whether it was the GF cake mix or the altitude that caused my problems. My other question is whether you thawed out the berries? Thank you. Any troubleshooting help you can give me would be much appreciated!
    Sincerely,
    Cindy

    1. I live at sea level and have never modified this recipe from the way I wrote it so really cannot speak to anything more…I do know that baking GF can cause issues but in this situation with them being so wet/moist, I am thinking it was a fruit/watery issue. I would suggest using FRESH fruit in your case since that will alleviate lots more guesswork and if they turn out okay then with GF mix and fresh berries, you know it was the frozen fruit that did you in. For me, wasn’t a problem and didn’t thaw first, just added in cold from freezer. Best of luck!

  4. Just baked the creamy mixed berry white chocolate crumble bar. I had to make a little adjustment. I only had a 13×8 pan so I ended up doubling the amount of flour and oatmeal so I could have enough dough to spread on the bottom of the pan. My husband and I LOVED it!

    1. Oh that’s so great to hear they worked out for you – great thinking on doubling the flour and oat amount. So glad you enjoyed!

      I have a mixed berry cake recipe Monday night/Tuesday that’s coming – stay tuned! :)