Peaches are one of my favorite summer fruits. Actually, I don’t think I can play favorites. There are so many glorious gems to chose from this time of year… raspberries for raspberry chocolate chip jumbo muffins, mixed berries for healthy berry streusel bars, blueberries for blueberry pie barsโI love them all!!
These fruity/creamy bars are nothing short of amazing. Four layers to love: buttery, brown sugar oat crust, creamy & juicy peach filling, pecan/cinnamon crumble, and an easy vanilla icing to finish it all off. The peach filling leaves each bite ultra moist and the crumble on top maintains a slight crunch. These bars are a texture lover’s dessert dream!
The peachy filling is made from peaches, egg, flour, and sugar. The egg and flour create a thick creamy sauce to envelope the diced peaches inside. I adore the peach filling, but the crust and crumble might just be the stars of the show. They’re both made from the same dough, which makes things easy and convenient. I try to dirty as little bowls as possible when I can. I know you feel me there!
The crust/crumble = made from 5 simple ingredients. Probably things you have in your kitchen right now. Oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. We use melted butter in blueberry pie bars, but here you want cold butter because you are going to cut the cold butter into the other ingredients. I recommend using a pastry cutter. It makes things so much easier. Cut the cold butter in until the mixture is crumbly. Reserve 3/4 cup of the oat mixture for the topping, to which you’ll add pecans. Nuts are optional, so you can definitely leave them out! The rest of the oat mixture will be pressed into your pan for the crust.
This is what the coarse crumbs of the oat mixture will look like:
Pre-bake the crust, then pour the creamy peach filling over the crust. What you will LOVE most about these bars is that the juicy filling seeps into the crust as it bakes, making the bars unbelievably moist. The tender, brown sugary crust will melt in your mouth.
The bars take about 30 minutes in the oven. Your kitchen will smell like a cross between cinnamon rolls and peach pie. Two of my favorite things in one. Allow the bars to cool before cutting and drizzling with the vanilla icing. I halved my original vanilla icing recipe since we don’t need as much. It’s made from 3 simple ingredients: heavy cream (or milk), confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla extract.
Drizzle the icing on top and prepare to be amazed. ๐
I think I found my new favorite dessert. Definitely one of the best ways to enjoy all of these fresh summer peaches! What’s your favorite way to enjoy peaches?
More peachy desserts to try: peach Bundt cake (with an incredible brown butter icing), peach muffins, peach cobbler, peach crumble pie, peach crisp, strawberry peach galette, fresh peach cake, and peach bread.
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Peaches ‘n’ Cream Bars
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 bars
- Category: Bars
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Take advantage of summer’s fresh peaches with these easy bars. A four layered bar with a brown sugar and oat crust, topped with a creamy peach filling, pecan streusel, and finished off with luscious vanilla icing.
Ingredients
Crust & Topping
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 cup (43g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats (or quick oats)
- 1/3 cup (67g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 10 Tablespoons (142g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- optional: 1/2 cup (70g) chopped pecans
Peach Filling
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon (8g) all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 medium peaches, peeled and chopped (about 1.5 cups)
Vanilla Icing
- 1/2 cup (60g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC) degrees. Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil or parchment, leaving an overhang on all sides to easily lift the bars out of the pan before cutting. Spray with nonstick spray or grease with butter. Set aside.
- Make the crust/topping: In a large bowl, whisk the flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon together until combined. Cut in the cold butter using a pastry blender or two forks until it reaches coarse, pea-sized crumbs. See photo above. Remove 3/4 cup of the mixture, put in a small bowl and mix with pecans. This will be set aside for the topping.
- Evenly press the remaining oat mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes as you prepare the filling.
- Make the filling: Whisk the egg and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Add the flour and salt. Whisk until combined. Fold in the peaches. Remove crust from the oven after 15 minutes and pour the filling over hot crust. Sprinkle with reserved oat/pecan mixture.
- Bake for 30-32 minutes or until golden brown on top. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Transfer to the refrigerator and allow to chill for 2 hours.
- Once chilled, lift the foil out of the pan using the overhang on the sides and cut into squares. For neat squares, I use a very sharp knife and wipe it clean with a paper towel after each cut.
- Make the vanilla icing: Using a fork or spoon, whisk/stir the confectioners’ sugar, cream, and vanilla extract together until smooth. Add another Tablespoon of milk to thin out if needed. Drizzle over each square. Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prepare the bars 1-3 days in advance and store covered tightly in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Bars can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 8-inch Square Baking Pan or 9-inch Square Baking Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Pastry Cutter | Whisk | Cooling Rack
- Double Batch: Recipe can easily be doubled to fit in a 9×13-inch pan. Baking time will increase to 35 minutes.
Reader Comments and Reviews
I have 2 questions.
1) If not using the 1/2 cup of nuts, is there anything else you’d recommend adding to make up the missing 1/2 cup? More oats? Any other substitute options?
2) My new (to me) oven (electric) cooks way hotter on top than bottom; I’m finding everything is burning on top. So these will be golden brown way before I reach 30 minutes. And I’ll be using frozen peaches. I saw in comments it says bake time will be a bit longer than written. So, how will I know when they’re done because they’ll already be browned at about 15 minutes?
Thank you!
Hi Elizabeth, the nuts are optional. You can simply leave them out. It sounds like you may need to tent your pan with foil so it doesn’t brown too quickly. You can also try lowering your oven rack. Happy baking!
I made these for a large family gathering last weekend and they were a huge hit! Family asking for them for July 4th get together.
One of the guests said they were the best thing she had ever put in her mouth!
They are best after resting a couple of hours, the flavors really meld. I made a double batch and I realize there will never be a single batch made in my oven.
Thank you for this wonderful treat!
I need to eliminate cinnamon from everything because hubby gets sick from the scent. Will the crust/crumb flavor be boring? If so, can I add a touch of vanilla? (I can only buy liquid, there is no vanilla pastes or dry versions of any kind.)
Hi Elizabeth! You can certainly add a little vanilla. We also love adding a touch of almond extract or fresh ginger with peach desserts for extra flavor.
The recipes are religious about showing volume AND mass for the ingredients. This is wonderful and I love it.
Except…..
This recipe if a good example of where it fails. The peaches are listed by volume only.
Items like this that are bulky don’t translate well to volume only. Do I pack it and measure? How big are the chunks? Square? Triangular?
It all matters. I can go back and forth between volume and mass ’til the cows come home using free flowing material. Things like chopped veg and fruit do not lend themselves well to volume measurements, nor size like “medium”.
I would ask that mass be included on ALL ingredients please!
Thanks.
Hi Carpboy, thanks for your note! We do try our best to include volume and mass measurements for all of our recipesโyou’ll notice both in all of our recent recipes from the past several years. This is an older recipe, and while we are working to go back and update recipes like this, with so many recipes on our site it will take some time! In the meantime, a cup of peaches is about 160g, give or take. We hope this helps and thanks so much for giving this recipe a try!