Making Oatmeal Crumble Bites with Rhubarb and Strawberry Jam (with my niece)

Our five year old niece slept over at our place last weekend. At her request, she got to come hang out with her aunt and uncle in the city and stay at our apartment all by herself. She had lots of fun and so did we! The highlight for Gwen...

Getting to go to the near-by candy store!
And then of course eating as much of that candy as fast as possible (even leaving her gum by her bed so that she could have some right when she woke up...and that is exactly what she did).

My favorite part...

Baking a yummy breakfast together!
Gwen is ready with the rhubarb. We made these Oatmeal Crumble Bites with Rhubarb and Strawberry Jam on top. I adapted the recipe from this breakfast food blog. It's a bit of a stretch to say it is a 'breakfast' item but hey, there's oatmeal! I would definitely recommend trying these out for breakfast or otherwise.

The Recipe:

The oatmeal crumble part: (to make 12 muffin sized bites, I would double the crumble recipe but the jam recipe can stay the same)

Combine the following:

• 6 TB butter
• melted and cooled
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• a big pinch of salt

The Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF
2. Butter a muffin pan and fill each cavity a little over half way with the crumble mixture (if there is leftover, you can use to top).
   
3. Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool slightly.

Now for the strawberry-rhubarb jam:

• 4 stalks, trimmed, cut into 1” pieces
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• 1/4-1/2 c. sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• the zest of a lemon
  
• a squeeze of lemon juice

Combine jam ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until bright pink and jammy, adding more sugar along the way if necessary.

Finishing things off:

• Top each crumble with a spoonful of the rhubarb. If you have extra crumble then sprinkle a little more of it and bake for another 8-10 minutes, until the oats are golden and the jam is bubbly.
• Cool for five minutes in the pan, then carefully scoop the cookies out with a spoon.

I love how it turns from this...

...to this! It's like magic.

The recipe shows how to make them all in one shot but we made and baked the crumble part and made the jam the night before. Then in the morning we topped with jam and baked them off. It worked out well and made it quicker to put together in the morning.

Here's how they turned out.

And I would recommended a good fruit smoothie to go with them.


And lastly, here's Gwen making some of her signature funny faces...

And for real lastly, the beautiful vase Matt gave me for my birthday put to good use.