Healthy oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bars are soft and moist, made in one bowl, with oats, peanut butter, and no banana. The perfect dairy free breakfast cookie bar with nutritional benefits.
These oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bars are a great oatmeal breakfast bar with 3 grams protein and 6 grams fiber. Mix them up in one bowl and pop them in your mouth for breakfast or lunch.
Quick oats work but rolled oats make the bars chewier. These oatmeal bars are a good oatmeal recipe like my chocolate baked oats, no bake peanut butter oat bars, and my chocolate oatmeal bars, all served with a refreshing glass of homemade oat milk.
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Why You'll Love This
Fast breakfast bar. These oatmeal chocolate chip bars mix in one bowl, and take only 30 minutes to make with 5 pantry ingredients.
A healthy, budget-friendly bar. This breakfast cookie bar is inexpensive to make.
Delicious & great for all diets. These bars are dairy free, egg free, vegan, gluten free and nut free options.
Ingredients
Rolled oats or quick oats. Either one works well. Oats are the primary ingredient in these bars.
Flour. I used oat flour which is just rolled oats blended into a powder. Or you can use all purpose flour.
Brown sugar. Coconut sugar keeps it refined sugar free, however regular light brown sugar is less refined and also adds a lovely caramel flavor to the bar.
Peanut Butter. Peanut butter brings a strong nutty flavor to these oatmeal chocolate chip bars. To reduce the nutty flavor, use a milder tasting nut butter such as almond butter or cashew butter.
Applesauce. Applesauce contains pectin which is a starch that helps create a binding texture to these bars as eggs would do.
Pure vanilla extract. I can't have a cookie without vanilla, use the real stuff!
Chocolate chips. Use semi sweet, and dairy free brand if needed. I used Enjoylife.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Steps to Make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
For more detail, visit the complete recipe for these oatmeal chocolate chip bars at the bottom of this post, but here are general steps.
Step 1: Mix sugar and wet ingredients: Add applesauce, sugar and vanilla to runny peanut butter in a mixing bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar about 2-3 minutes.
Step 2: Dry Ingredients: Add all the dry ingredients at once. Mix until combined, about 1 minute.
Step 3: Fold in chips. Fold the mini chocolate chips in with a spatula or spoon.
Step 4: Add to Pan: Fold the batter into a loaf pan with parchment paper with overhanging flaps, or foil. Sprinkle on a few extra chocolate chips.
Step 5: Bake: Now bake the bars until they’re golden for about 25 minutes. Allow the bars to cool in the pan for about 25 minutes. This will allow them to finish cooking.
Recipe Tips
These oatmeal cookie bars are super easy to make, but here are a few more tips to help your recipe turn out perfectly.
Melt peanut butter. Warm the peanut butter in a microwave for 15 minutes.
Mix the sugar and peanut butter well. This step is crucial so the sugar dissolves - this is key to the shiny, cake-like top of the bars.
Avoid over-baking. Look for a dry, cracked top and a slight golden color to edges. The center might be a little wiggly, and that's okay because the bars will continue to cook as they are cool in the pan.
Variations & Mix-ins
- Use white chocolate, peanut butter or butterscotch chips.
- Add ⅓ cup shredded coconut.
- Add 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa to the batter.
- Mix in ¼ cup of raisins.
- Mix ¼ cup of walnuts or other nuts into batter.
Storage
Once these bars have cooled completely, they can be stored at room temperature in a sealed container for 3 days.
The bars freeze well. Cut them first, and add them to a container, seperated by a square of parchment or foil. They can last 3 months.
FAQS
This oatmeal cookie bar has only 154 calories, lower than most store bought breakfast bars which tend to have 300 kcal and more.
These oatmeal chocolate chip bars are made of rolled oats, oat flour, coconut sugar, baking powder, salt and applesauce.
Yes, these oatmeal bars also provide 3 grams of protein, 2 grams of fiber, only 13 grams of sugar and will help you feel full and energized through out your morning.
More Oatmeal & Chocolate Bars
If you tried this healthy oatmeal cookie bar recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
📖 Recipe
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
Ingredients
- ½ cup rolled oats or quick oats
- ¼ cup peanut butter or almond or cashew butter
- ⅓ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup applesauce
- ⅓ cup all purpose flour (Or ½ cup oat flour)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
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Instructions
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper or foil.
- Microwave the peanut butter once measured in a bowl for 15 seconds.
Make bars
- Add applesauce, sugar and vanilla to the melted peanut butter. Mix to dissolve the sugar about 2-3 minutes. This step is key to a shiny top - your goal is to melt the sugar.⅓ cup brown sugar, packed, ¼ cup applesauce, ½ teaspoon vanilla, ¼ cup peanut butter
- Fold in the dry ingredients. Mix the batter about 1 minute or until combined.½ cup rolled oats, ⅓ cup all purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Fold in the chocolate chips. Reserve a few to sprinkle on top at the end.¼ cup chocolate chips
- Fold the batter into the pan, level the top with a spoon. Sprinkle on the spare chocolate chips.
- Bake the bars for 20-25 minutes. Remove when the top middle looks dry and tiny cracks begin, and the edges take on a bit of golden brown.
- Cool the bars in the pan for 30 minutes. Then slice and serve. Or cool for ten minutes and use the parchment paper to lift the bars out and let them cool on a wire rack.
Storage
- Store bars sliced in a sealed container for 5 days. Then refrigerate for a week, or freeze for three months.
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