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I realized the other day that it has been a hot minute since I made any sort of bar recipe. I think the last one I made was a couple of years back and was a twist on a PB&J and was made around back-to-school time. Sooo I thought it was high time that I made some more bars. I didn’t want these to be thin little nothing bars either. I wanted them to be a meal in themselves.

The heartiness of these bars makes them great for breakfast or as an indulgent sort of dessert. They’re thick and layered and absolutely delicious. Plus, they’re egg-free, vegetarian and made with whole wheat! One of my favorite thing about these bars though? They’re crazy easy to make!

I lightened these bars up and made them a bit more healthy by swapping in natural sweetener for some of the sugar, a brown sugar blend for the regular brown sugar, and I also used whole wheat white flour. With just these few simple swaps, you end up with a delicious treat that’s far less of a guilty pleasure while still tasting amazing!

You absolutely do want the raspberries to thaw completely and to get as much water out of them as you can. You could probably use FRESH raspberries here, but it would take a LOT of them. Plus, it would likely turn into more of a cobbler than a bar. The chill time is also important here. If you don’t let the bars cool, they’ll be a lot softer and more likely to fall apart.

Feel free to change up the fruit used. I chose raspberries because they sounded good to me today, but pretty much any frozen berry would work with the same process of thawing and draining well!

Step-by-Step Photos: