When you’re looking for a snack with your family, but are getting a little “cookied” out, these oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bars are the perfect solution. A quick-to-put-together snack, these bars are gooey, chocolatey and a sweet dessert to take to a potluck or to keep at home for your family.
We try to make as much for ourselves here on our homestead. That means if we can make it from scratch, we are going to do our best to do so! It also means that our snacks are often going to be a homemade, from scratch treat rather than something you can open up from a box.
I like to have a lot of different snacks available for our always-hungry children (and my always-hungry husband). In the summer, it’s easy to have raspberries, cucumbers, fresh peas, tomatoes, radishes, and green peppers, all from our garden, to fill hungry bellies. In the winter, we don’t have as many of those luxuries anymore. We can still eat some frozen raspberries or pickles, but most of our snacks come in the form of baked goods and treats.
Some of our favorites go-to, from scratch snacks are:
- Homemade granola bars sweetened with honey
- Maple-syrup sweetened blueberry muffins
- Cast-iron gooey cinnamon rolls
- Naturally sweetened raspberry cobbler
- Gooey chocolate brownies from scratch
But lately, we’ve been needing something different. We’d gone through the traditional chocolate-chip cookies, eaten all of our normal snacks, and just were looking for a change. I played around a few times in the kitchen, and after I made these, my son told me that I needed to share them because they were that good. I’ll take that one for a win.
Materials Needed for the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
These are a really easy-to-make recipe that make very few dishes. The only things you’ll need are:
- a glass bowl- glass is important if you’re looking to use as few of dishes as possible, as you can soften your butter right in the glass bowl
- measuring cups
- a wooden spoon
- a 9×13 cake pan
- oven mitt (aren’t these chicken ones adorable?)
That’s it! I told you it wouldn’t leave you with a lot of dishes!
Ingredients
I always try to stick with ingredients that I have on hand, plus ingredients that are going to be whole-foods. This recipe is no exception!
The items you’ll need to make these oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bars are:
- Butter
- Coconut Oil– refined or unrefined. I have tried it both ways, and I have to say, I really like the unrefined coconut flavor that comes through in these bars if you go that route. If you use the unrefined, or coconut oil without flavor, that works just as well, too!
- Baking Soda
- Eggs
- Brown Sugar
- White Sugar
- Vanilla– we use our own homemade vanilla. If you’re not already making your own, then you need to find out how you can save a TON of money in the super simple process of making it yourself.
- Salt (if using salted butter, you can omit this)
- Flour
- Oats
- Mini Chocolate Chips
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
A quick-to-put-together snack, these bars are gooey, chocolatey, and a sweet dessert for a potluck or to keep at home for your family.
Ingredients
- 1 stick Unsalted Butter, softened and just starting to melt
- 1/2 cup Melted Coconut Oil– refined or unrefined
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 2 Eggs
- 1 cup Packed Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup White Sugar
- 2 tsp. Vanilla
- 1/8 tsp. Salt (if using salted butter, you can omit this)
- 1 1/2 cups Flour
- 2 cups Oats
- 1 cup Mini Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Prepare a 9x13 inch pan by greasing it with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, coconut oil, eggs, brown sugar, white sugar, and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Stir until everything is combined and creamy.
- Stir in salt (if using) and baking soda to the mixture
- Slowly add in flour, stirring as you add 1/2 cups at a time
- Add in the oats slowly. The mixture will be sticky and thick.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Spread the mixture evenly in your prepared 9x13 pan.
- Bake oatmeal chocolate chip bars for 25-30 minutes, or until middle is just set.
- Allow bars to sit in the pan until cool, or for at least 20 minutes before cutting and serving. Store in an airtight pan for up to 5 days.
Notes
You don't want to overbake these bars, as that will make them dry out. Just watching for the middle to not be "jiggly" is the key here! It takes my oven about 25-27 minutes for this to happen. The outside corners will be lightly golden brown and firm, and if you give the pan a little shake, the center will not jiggle.
Want to cook from scratch, but really don’t want to plan?
I know what you mean. Cooking from scratch, all the time- snacks, meals, whatever- doesn’t have to be hard! I go through my easy-to-implement strategy for cooking from scratch here in this post. I use the mentality of the pioneers as my guide, so that we can eat wholesome foods, from-scratch cooking, and feel good about what we’re serving our family for dinner each night. You can too!
Don’t forget to save this on Pinterest!
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