Cranberry Crumble Bars

It is fall, and we are enjoying the fall foods that appear in the store this time of year. Bags of fresh cranberries recently arrived in our grocery store, so I was looking for cranberry recipes and I found these bars. Both Brian and I think they are really delicious, and they are a good way to enjoy fresh cranberries, so I wanted to share the recipe with you. If you try it, let us know what you think.

Cranberry Crumble Bars (preheat oven to 400)

Filling: 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup water
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 Tbsp grated orange zest
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Crust: 3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup oats
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt

1) On stovetop, mix sugar, orange juice, and water. Heat to boiling. Remove from heat and add the remaining filling ingredients. Place back on the heat and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened.
2) Mix crust ingredients in order given until a crumbly mixture forms. Press half of the mixture into an ungreased pan. Spread the cranberry filling on top. Then, top filling with the remaining crust mixture, pressing down lightly.
3) Bake bars at 400 degrees until light brown.

Notes:
1) The recipe suggests that you use a 9x13 pan and bake for 20 minutes. I thought that would make the bars too thin, so I used a 8x8 and baked for 35 minutes. I think it would work well either way. My bars came out about 1.5 inches tall, so they would be thinner if you used a larger pan.
2) I think the cranberries are the main point of these bars, so I wanted more filling. I made an extra half batch of filling, which is yummy. I would suggest making more filling than the recipe calls for.