Mini baked oat cups have an oatmeal base, a soft fudge middle and a crumble topping. These mini baked oat cups are made with only 8 ingredients, naturally gluten free and dairy free, have no refined sugar and are an easy grab-and-go treat.
Soften the butter for the crust and crumble top in microwave for 5 seconds. You want it soft so your finger pressed leaves an impression; you don't want to melt it into a liquid because you want the crumb top to be chunky.
Note: The butter for the filling does not have to be softened.
Make Crust & Crumble Top
Combine crust dry ingredients, then stir in softened butter or use a fork to cut in the butter. You want the mixture to be crumbly.
¾ cup all purpose flour, ½ cup rolled oats, ½ cup brown sugar, pinch of salt, ¼ cup butter
Remove ¼ cup of the mixture and set aside to use for the top crumb.
Fill the mini muffin wells with ½ tablespoon of oat crust and press hard with a shot glass so the oats form a small crust with a rim.
Bake the crusts for 5-8 minutes at 325 F. Don't burn them, pull them out if they seem browned. Now go make the filling.
When crusts are browned, remove the muffin pan from oven, allow them to cool in the pan while you finish the filling.
Make Filling
Now preheat the oven to 350 F. (note the temperature change) Gather and measure the filling ingredients.
Put the butter, peanut butter and chocolate chips into a 2-cup glass measuring cup and microwave for 1 minute. Stir until creamy. Spoon in the applesauce, stir again.
¾ cups chocolate chips, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 3 tablespoon butter, ⅓ cup apple sauce
Into a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
⅓ cup all purpose flour, ½ cup brown sugar, pinch of salt
Add the melted chocolate mixture to the dry mixture and stir into a batter.
Spoon it onto the baked crust, and smooth the surface.
Add Crumb Top
Sprinkle the reserved crumb top onto the middle filling.
Bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes. The crumb tops should be golden brown but don't let them burn - pull them out early if the top crumb seems browned. The center layers will seem moist and leave a testing stick fudgy.
Let the cups cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
Storage
Store the cups in the refrigerator for 1 week in sealed container. Or freeze for 3 months.
Video
Notes
You can use a mini muffin pan or a silicon mold. Use paper liners either way to make it easier to remove cups.The cups can be frozen as a no bake treat if you prefer. Just make them, and instead of baking, freeze them for 30 minutes. Store refrigerated.This recipe is gluten free if the oats you use are certified gluten-free.*use coconut (brown) sugar to keep it refined sugar free