These breakfast cookie bars are like the popular breakfast cookie recipes that typically include oats, peanut butter, and banana, but in bar form!
Have you ever made a recipe and then changed it so much over time that it doesn’t really resemble the original recipe anymore? That’s how these happened!
I first made these with my boyfriend, Bryan, who was following a breakfast cookie recipe very loosely. As he tossed in extra peanut butter, banana, and chocolate chips (all goooooood things), used honey instead of sugar, added an extra egg, and used applesauce for moisture instead of diced apple, I honestly wasn’t quite how they’d turn out….but they ended up being so delicious!
So, I re-made these breakfast bars to take notes on actual measurements to share with you! And then I re-tested them twice more to experiment with substituting oat flour and reducing/eliminating the honey.
I’m still not sure that my final version is quite as amazing as Byran’s haphazardly thrown-together version, but that might have something to do with the fact that he added nearly an entire bag of chocolate chips to his breakfast cookie bars. 😉 But these bars are great and a fun easy snack/breakfast recipe!
Breakfast Cookie Bar Ingredients
The full ingredient line-up: quick oats, flour (I use gluten-free), baking soda, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, applesauce, egg, banana, peanut butter, and chocolate chips.
When I’m trying to cut back on sugar, I like using Lily’s (Stevia-sweetened) chocolate chips. The banana and applesauce add enough sweetness that you don’t really need extra honey or sugar.
Also, I sometimes buy individual applesauce cups for baking so I can keep them in the pantry for whenever I need them, and I don’t have half of a jar of applesauce remaining in my fridge that I may forget to use.
Substitutions
Since I’m currently sticking to a gluten-free diet, I tested these breakfast cookie bars both with all-purpose gluten-free flour and with oat flour. I slightly prefer the texture of the gluten-free flour version, but both work well!
To make your own oat flour, you can blend the same amount of oats in a blender or food processor.
While most breakfast cookie recipes are shaped like actual cookies, I love breakfast cookies in bar form so that I don’t have to spend time scooping individual dough balls. The applesauce makes the cookie dough more batter-like than dough, so I think making bars works better than trying to scoop individual cookie dough balls.
And if you line the pan with parchment paper, clean-up is quick and easy!
Like most baked goods, these breakfast bars freeze really well, so they’re joining my ever-present freezer stash of gluten-free muffins and energy bites.
I’m happy to have another tried-and-true gluten-free breakfast/snack/treat recipe– hope you enjoy, too!
If you try these breakfast cookie bars, feel free to let me know in a comment or take a photo and tag me @livbane on Instagram. I’d love to see!
Bryan's Breakfast Cookie Bars
Ingredients
Liquid Ingredients
- 2 bananas
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup natural peanut butter
- 3/4 cup applesauce
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Dry Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups quick oats
- 3/4 cup GF flour (I use Bob's Red Mill GF flour. You can also use regular wheat flour or blend oats to make oat flour– these bars are incredibly adaptable!)
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips (can add up to 3/4 cup to batter if you like extra chocolate), plus extra to heavily sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mash bananas and then add egg, peanut butter, applesauce, and vanilla.
- In a small bowl, stir together dry ingredients: oats, flour, baking soda, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients, and then stir in chocolate chips.
- Line 8x8 or 9x9 inch pan with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray. Pour batter in pan. Bake for 20-24 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the pan comes out clean.
- Enjoy warm or cool for at least 30 minutes to cut slightly neater bars. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days (for best taste) and/or freeze for 2-3 months!
Nutrition
Originally inspired by and heavily adapted from this recipe
This looks like a great treat for everyone stuck at home.
I hope so! 😀
These are delicious!! I’m always looking for new recipes and ways to use up brown bananas and these bars turned out perfectly. I used an extra banana instead of the apple sauce and almond flour instead of GF flour. Perfectly moist and sweet enough with simply the chocolate chips. Yum!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these! Thanks for sharing your adaptations– I’m excited to try with almond flour!
These are amazing! I followed your recipe except for substituting almond flour for the GF flour and baked in an 8×8 dish. With the almond flour, I had to bake longer than 24 minutes to get them to set in a cake-like texture, but they were worth the wait! My husband said, “These taste just like blondies. It is hard to believe they are healthy!” I love making recipes that he likes that I feel good about him eating. While they were good straight out of the oven, I think they are even better at room temperature. This recipe is a keeper!
I’m so glad you enjoyed these! Thanks for sharing how the almond flour version turned out 🙂
You always have deliciously surprise recipes for is to try.
Hope you enjoy these 😀
Just tried these. They are delicious, light and not sweet except for when I taste the chocolate chips.
So glad you enjoyed these! Just made another batch myself 😀
Has anyone tried these without the egg?
Love breakfast bars, and Bryan’s twists on the recipe.
I made Bryan’s breakfast cookie bars! Sooooo good! I didn’t have applesauce so I used an extra banana. I put some walnuts on top also. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
I’m so glad you loved these! I had to pass along your comment to Bryan 😊
I found this recipe a few weeks ago while trying to find something different to make for my kids that would be easy to grab before online school started. These seemed perfect.I’m now making it for the 4th time. Our whole house loves them and I feel good about letting my kids eat them whenever they want because they are so clean and healthy. I make my own oat flour out of steel cut oats so they are totally GF. I have made them with Bobs Red Mill GF mix but I like the idea of them being 100 % made of oats and it made no difference as far as taste or texture. Thanks for this awesome recipe!
Yay, I’m so glad that you and your whole family love these bars! I’m glad oat flour is working well for you and thanks for reporting back! I’m just waiting for my bananas to ripen to make a batch this week myself!
This is a follow-up to the review I left a few years ago. I’m still making these regularly but I’ve had to change it up just a little because one of my children was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. For the flour (gf or otherwise) I use almond flour. I also add 2 T (a serving) of psyllium husks. They come out to be 15 carbs a serving. There changes keep his blood sugar more stable. Thank you again!
Addicting!!! Perfect recipe.
Love these – make them often and added coconut, dried cranberry and hemp seeds —- so good and filling