These Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are perfectly soft & chewy, made healthier with oat flour & no oil, and they are absolutely delicious!
It’s a chocolate cookie kind of day, but not your regular “cookie” shaped cookies. These bad boys are breaking the rules and taking bar form!
SSSHHH! DON’T SAY THE “C” WORD!
Cookies in our house are known as c-double o-k-i-e-s’s. The word “cookie” is banned because if our dog Chester hears it he goes crazy thinking that I am going to make him some of his Peanut Butter Banana Dog Cookies or his Sweet Potato Dog Cookies. My life would not be worth living if he heard the word and I did not produce said c-double o-k-i-e-s’s.
It’s a good job he can’t read as otherwise I would be in trouble right now. ????
Since I reviewed Ashley Melillo’s book Blissful Basil back in January, I have been gradually, (in what little time I have for cooking other people’s recipes), working my way through the rest of the book. That Power Bowl recipe I shared has been on regular meal rotation. It’s so good!
One of the recipes we have all really enjoyed from the book are the Chocolate Chip Coconut Oil Cookie Bars and this recipe has inspired me to create my own completely oil-free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar recipe.
These cookie bars are so easy to make. Just throw all of the ingredients into a food processor and have them baking in the oven in minutes!
HOW TO MAKE OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE BARS
- Line an 8 x 8 pan with baking parchment
- Add all ingredients except chocolate chips to a food processor and process until smooth then add the chocolate chips and stir
- Spoon batter into pan evenly then bake
- Do not taste the batter during the process or it will not make it to the oven ????
The resulting Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars are almost like a cross between cookies and cake. They are soft, sweet, slightly chewy, with lovely almost caramel undertones from the coconut sugar.
They are absolutely amazing while still warm from the oven.
Those melty chocolate chips…..♡
They are also great a few days later as they dry out a little and become more traditionally cookie like.
A MUST TRY SERVING IDEA!
I love these Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars at all stages of the game but you must try serving a freshly cut piece of warm cookie bar with a huge dollop of vanilla ice-cream.
Seriously…..it is what dreams are made of ♡.
For more gluten-free baked goods made with oat flour, check out these great options:
- Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
- Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes
- Gluten-Free Lemon Cake with Blueberries
- Gluten-Free Lemon Cake with Blueberries
- Fudgy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
And if you love this recipe, please do check out my cookbook, and subscribe to my email list for a fabulous FREE eCookbook featuring my top 10 recipes. Being on the list means you will be first to see my new recipes and you’ll be kept in the loop on all things new and exciting too!
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 150g / 1¾ cups rolled oats , or quick oats, (be sure to buy certified gluten-free oats if necessary)
- 110g / ½ cup cashew butter (almond butter is ok as a sub and peanut butter would work too if you don't mind a peanut taste coming through - For a nut-free option use SunButter)
- 100g / ¾ cup coconut sugar (other brown sugar would work too but for the very best flavour use coconut sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons aquafaba (liquid from a can of chickpeas)
- 60mls / 4 tablespoons / ¼ cup plant-based milk
- 65 g dairy-free semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line an 8 x 8 pan with baking parchment, leaving enough paper around the edge to act as a handle. A little bit of oil under the parchment paper helps to keep it in place when you are spreading out the dough later but isn't essential if you don't have any).
- Add the oats to a food processor or very powerful blender. Process until they are a flour like consistency.
- Add all of the other ingredients except the chocolate chip and process until smooth, scraping down the sides once about halfway through.
- Stir through the chocolate chips then spoon the batter into the prepared tin.
- Spread the batter out evenly so it reaches the sides. It will be sticky and resist but that's normal. I find a silicone spatula or the back of a metal spoon work well for this.
- If you want to make them look a little prettier scatter a few extra chocolate chips over the top so they can be seen once baked.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for at least 15 minutes before trying to remove.
- Once completely cool, cut into pieces. A pizza cutter or a long sharp knife do a great job of this.
Long time vegan, creator of A Virtual Vegan & author of the book 
Sarah says
absolutely divine! these are sooo delicious! i loved how easy they were to make and i can see how using aquafaba makes a difference. I made these with peanut butter and don’t think it affects the overall taste.
I’m glad i oiled the pan before the parchment as the batter is quite thick and tougher to spread out. Yet absolutely worth it! and no kidding, try not to eat all of the batter!
another fab recipe!
Melanie McDonald says
Thank you Sarah. I’m so pleased you enjoyed them!
JoAnne says
I’ve made these probably 3-4 times now, making them again today. Thanks for the recipe!
A Virtual Vegan says
I’m so pleased you are enjoying them. Thanks for taking the time to come back and rate/comment on them!
Chana says
Can I leave out the aquafaba? What can I replace it with?
A Virtual Vegan says
You could use a flax egg instead (1 tablespoon of finely ground flax seeds mixed with 2.5 tablespoons of hot water and left to gel for 10-15mins), or a chia egg (same measurements as the flax egg just with ground chia seeds) but for optimum results I recommend aquafaba. It gives much better results than any other egg substitute in this recipe.
Sferd says
If beginning with Oat Flour, would it be the same amount…1 3/4 Cups? Or, would that be reduced?
A Virtual Vegan says
If you were beginning with oat flour the best thing to do would be to use the weight measurement to be sure the amount is accurate. It’s 150g. I think one cup of oat flour is about 1½ cup of rolled oats before they are pulverized but I’m not 100% sure. Hope that helps! :)
Doug says
Thanks for sharing this! Just made them and they are excellent!
A Virtual Vegan says
Good to hear. Thanks Doug!
Sarah says
These look yummy and I love the way you tiptoe around your dog :) We can still spell things with Jonathan around, but David totally knows what we’re saying :)
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you! I remember spelling things out around Jacob when he was younger. I had forgotten we did that until you mentioned it.
kimmythevegan says
Cookie bars!!!!! These look so good!
Our pup Sunny doesn’t have the same attunement to the word “cookie” haha, but I should most definitely check out your homemade dog treats so I can make her something too ;)
A Virtual Vegan says
Yes you should totally check them out. Sunny will be very grateful!
Amy Katz from Veggies Save The Day says
These look like a delicious dessert! I would never guess they’re oil-free.
A Virtual Vegan says
Thanks Amy. They certainly don’t taste like they are oil-free!
Dianne says
It’s always a chocolate cookie kinda day for me! These look totally delish!
A Virtual Vegan says
Oh I know the feeling well! ???? Thanks Dianne!
Becky Striepe says
Oh my gosh, this looks so good! You had me at chocolate chips, obviously.
A Virtual Vegan says
Thanks Becky! Chocolate is a word that stops me in my tracks too! ????
Mary Ellen | VNutrition says
Haha! Chester is too funny! We can’t say the word “treat” in our house or “breakfast” for that matter. The pups think breakfast means breakfast or dinner.
These look amazing Mel! I like bars over cookies sometimes because I don’t feel like making cookie shapes. With the bars I could just slice and eat!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you. Bars make life so much easier, plus you don’t have to say ‘cookie’ then! It sounds like your pups are little characters just like Chester!
Elisa says
They look amazing, I will be making these for sure. Do you know if any other thing would work as substitute for the aquafaba? Maybe ener-g egg replacer or a flax egg? I don’t know, if you could let me know, please! Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. :)
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you! I haven’t tried it with anything else other than Aquafaba. It’s my go to now as it gives such great results. I would think a flax egg with 1 tablespoon flax & 3 tablespoons water would work well though. As for the egg replacer, I’ve never ever used it so I wouldn’t like to say with that one. It would probably be ok though. I think you could probably even leave it out completely and just use an extra 3 tablespoons of milk and get an ok result. It’s quite a forgiving recipe. Hope that helps and that you enjoy it!