These peanut butter oatmeal bars with chocolate chips are gooey, rich, and naturally gluten-free! Serve with a glass of cold almond milk for a healthy sweet treat.
Woohoo, another healthy baked good recipe has passed my family’s taste test! I really love these flourless peanut butter oatmeal bars. They’re quick to whip up and naturally gluten-free, with no refined sugar.
These peanut butter oatmeal bars have a short ingredient list of things I always have in my kitchen: natural peanut butter, oats, almond milk, baking powder, salt, chocolate chips, and coconut sugar.
I bought a bag of coconut sugar a couple of months ago because I was seeing a lot of healthy recipes that called for it, and it ended up being a good investment and something I’ll keep buying since I do a lot of baking. You could always use brown sugar, though.
I also used natural peanut butter in these. I like Trader Joe’s natural and Simple Truth organic natural peanut butter, which both only have peanuts and salt. Lately, I’ve also started buying organic natural peanut butter at Costco for a steal!
But back to the bars– they’re amazing hot out of the oven with a glass of almond milk. But my favorite was right out of the fridge, because they get this fudgy texture and remind me of a cold peanut butter cup (my favorite!).
These are a bit different from the last peanut butter chocolate chip bars I shared, which were these peanut butter chocolate chip chickpea blondies. Those blondies are delicious in their own right and they’re super healthy as far as dessert goes, but they don’t have quite the same texture as a typical blondie or dessert bar. These bars, however, completely do.
During my internship this summer, I loved tucking one of these into my lunchbox on occasion for a sweet afternoon treat.
Like most bars and cookies, you can place these in a freezer-safe bag or Tupperware and freeze them for up to a couple of months. To defrost, just place one on the counter, and it’ll be readyy to eat 20-30 minutes later. Or you can put one in your lunchbox straight out of the freezer, and it’ll be defrosted by lunchtime. 
If you try these healthy peanut butter oatmeal bars, let me know in a comment or take a photo and tag me @livbane on Instagram! I can’t wait to see!
Healthy Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars with Chocolate Chips
Ingredients
- 1 cup natural peanut butter
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar (you can substitute regular granulated white or brown sugar)
- 1 1/2 cups oat flour*
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. almond milk
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8x8 inch pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the peanut butter and coconut sugar. Stir vigorously together for 60 seconds.
- All at once, add the oat flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture and mix halfway, then add almond milk and mix again until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Press cookie dough into the parchment-lined pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes, until just starting to lightly brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean with just a bit of moist crumb. Don't over-bake.
- Let bars cool completely in pan, and then grasp the edges of the parchment paper to pull bars out of pan. Slice into 16 bars and place in a gallon-size bag or Tupperware container. Store in refrigerator for up to one week or freezer for up to 2 months.
Notes
Nutrition
Other peanut butter chocolate recipes you may love:
Peanut Butter Chickpea Blondies
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Date Bars
Just looking at these made me happy! I LOVE a good peanut butter chocolate chip bar or cookie, and the texture of these is RIGHT on POINT Liv!
I love anything with chocolate and peanut butter!
These look amazing! And the ingredients are so simple – things I always keep around the house. I’m allergic to peanuts, but I’ll have to give these a try using almond butter 🙂
You’ll have to let me know how they turn out with almond butter 🙂
Mmmm these look so tasty! Lately it’s getting colder outside and I’m craving all the warm, gooey baked goods. I love the taste of things baked with oat flour, so I’m definitely adding these to my to-make list 🙂
Me, too! Oat flour is by far my favorite gluten-free flour for baking, primarily for taste, but also for cost and convenience!
Absolutely mouth-watering! I can’t wait to make some for the fam. Thanks for sharing!
Hi! I never have almond milk on hand- is there a substitute I could use? Also, I would love to hear feedback using almond butter as that’s what I’d like to use as well!
Hi Liza! You could use any type of milk for this recipe. I haven’t tried using almond butter, but I think it’s worth a shot!
Idk why but mine started to burn after about 8 mins in the oven. It burned on the top and the sides as well… I would say its because of the non stick spray that I used since I didnt have parchment paper but then that doesn’t explain why the top burned as well…
I have made these three times. The first time they were really good but I wanted them cooked a little more since they seemed a little bit underdone. The next batch were ok, but definitely overcooked since the sides got too brown. Third time they seemed underdone again and they all fell apart when I cut them. I love this recipe and am not sure how to make these turn out right!
Made them, loved them. Nothing to freeze as they didn’t last the week.
Mmm, I made these today and they were great! The kids also loved them! I used honey instead (half the sugar amount) and 2% milk. Baking for 19 minutes was perfect. Went into my recipe book!
Awesome! Thanks for sharing, Tia.
Baked these today, thank you for this yummy recipe
Saved this in my favorite recipes