Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookie Breakfast Bars

Written by on in Baking For Others

With Food Network’s Comfort Food Feast hosting a day of chocolate chip cookies in virtuous January, I racked my brain for a recipe that I could share with you that wouldn’t, you know, tempt you to eat chocolate chip cookies if you didn’t want to go there yet.

(If you do want to, we’ve got some options! Chocolate Chip Cookie Squares. Chocolate Chip Cookies with Milk and Dark Chocolate. Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake. Chocolate Chip Macaroons. Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. Coffee-Toffee Ice Cream Sandwich Squares. Insane.)

I remembered a recipe from Weelicious, a blog and book about cooking for kids and families. That seemed an unexpected choice for a quarter-life cook, but stay with me. I love kid food. The recipe I remembered is for breakfast bars, not-too-sweet rectangles of baked oatmeal punctuated by fruit and nuts.

To make my bars suitable for the adult palates around here, I made a couple of changes. Alex is a guy who believes in breakfast dessert, which usually takes the form of a small handful of chocolate chips. So chocolate chips replaced the fruit. The original recipe calls for applesauce, which isn’t something I usually have around. Out went applesauce, in went peanut butter (banned, I hear, in schools).

Last, I used pecans, whose rich, sweet flavor enhanced the chocolatey nature of these cookie-bars which function as a real, healthful, portable breakfast. In fact, I’m even more likely to eat these as snacks than breakfast, and I sometimes wrap them in plastic and stock in my purse, just in case hunger strikes.

Here are the other awesome chocolate chip cookies other bloggers have made for Food Network’s Comfort Food Feast. Yum!

Jeanette’s Healthy Living: Gluten-Free Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies
What’s Gaby Cooking: Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Lemon Bowl: Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
From My Corner of Saratoga: Chocolate Chip Cookies
Napa Farmhouse 1885: New Year’s Resolution Chocolate Chip Cookies
Red or Green?: Tao’s Double-Chocolate Chip Cookies
Made By Michelle: The Best Blondies, Ever
Cooking With Elise: Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sweet Life Bike: Dulce de Leche Chocolate Chip Cookies
Virtually Homemade: Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Cultural Dish: Chocolate Chip Cookie Goodness
Thursday Night Dinner: Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake
Dishin & Dishes: Chocolaty Chocolate Chip Cookies
Daily*Dishin: Chocolate Chip and Candied Bacon Cookies With Pecans
Devour:5 Takes on Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
FN Dish: The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

**Recipe**

Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookie Breakfast Bars
Author: Adapted from [url href=”http://weelicious.com/2010/03/01/oatmeal-on-the-go-bars/”]Weelicious[/url]
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 16 bars or 32 squares
These are not too sweet at all – more like a bowl of oatmeal than a cookie. In my book, that’s ideal for breakfast and snacking. If you’d like them sweeter, add an extra tablespoon or two of brown sugar, and/or use milk chocolate chips instead of the semisweet. Also, if your peanut butter is very smooth or at room temperature, you probably won’t need the electric mixer – just stir everything together. Since my peanut butter was cold and stiff, it was helpful to have the mixer to incorporate into the other ingredients. These keep well in the fridge for 5 days.
Ingredients
  • 2 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup neutral oil
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 cup milk or almond milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chunks or chips
  • 3/4 cup pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease two 4 1/2 by 8 1/2-inch loaf pans.
  2. Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Beat together the peanut butter, sugar, and oil with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in the egg. Then, whisk in the milk by hand – carefully, so you don’t splatter. Stir in the vanilla.
  3. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and fold to combine. Stir in chocolate and 1/2 cup nuts and pour the batter into the two prepared pans. Sprinkle evenly with the remaining pecans.
  4. Bake the bars for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden. Using an offset spatula, loosen the bars from the pan and turn onto a rack to cool completely. When cool, cut each pan into 8 bars. If you want smaller servings, cut each bar in half. Store in the fridge.

 

45 Comments

  1. Oh yum! I love a good breakfast bar, and I’ve been wanting to make my own to really be able to control what goes in them. Thanks so much for the recipe!

    • Ha! Neutral oil just means oil without any pronounced flavor - safflower (what I use), canola, vegetable. But olive oil would be too strong a flavor for these.

      • would coconut oil be a good match…not neutral, but breakfasty and desserty…?

  7. only discovered your site yesterday and have already made a batch of these bars and the chai latte, both were truly delicous, will continue to enjoy I’m sure

  8. This is brilliant. I eat oatmeal for breakfast almost every day, but not in cookie form. I will most certainly try this, and I’m sure I’ll be blogging about it when I do.

  10. I just made these tonight & we loved them! They’re just sweet enough. I added sweetened flaked coconut & some cinnamon. They really are soft like oatmeal!

  11. These were really great and have been wonderful to have on hand in the fridge as I NEVER wake up with enough time to make breakfast, let alone eat it.
    One suggestion, however: It would be easier to follow the recipe if the ingredients were listed in the order they are used in the recipe. Also, the vanilla extract is no where in the recipe instructions.

    • Thanks for pointing that out, Vanessa…my mistake. Recipe is updated now with vanilla and correct order. In any event, glad you enjoyed the bars and how convenient they were!

    • I haven’t tried, but I bet they’d hold up splendidly. I’d cut them into bars, and perhaps wrap individually. Let us know how it goes!

  14. Peanut butter is not school friendly but Sunflower Seed Butter is great! Try that as an alternative with toasted sunflower seeds instead of nuts.

  15. I made this today. I have been looking something that is low sugar. It turned out very good. I think the next go around I will make a few adaptations, coconut oil instead of canola oil, and dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet. I didn’t have any wheat flour so I used white. I will need to try it with the wheat flour.
    Thank you so much for sharing.

  16. I made these yesterday and they turned out so moist! My whole family loved them. I can usually never get my dad and brother to like anything with whole wheat flour, but they came back for seconds! These definitely qualify as one of my favorite go-to breakfasts.

    I pretty much stuck to the recipe except I used half chopped pecans and half chopped walnuts. Next time I would mix in all the nuts to the batter because most fell off the top as I was cutting the bars… and maybe add coconut?

    MeghanML I cut the bars after cooling, wrapped them individually in foil, and froze them in a ziploc freezer bag. This morning I grabbed one out of the freezer and zapped it in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds. It was the perfect breakfast as I flew out the door and I couldn’t even tell that they had been frozen 🙂

    http://layersofhappiness.com

  17. I want to make these but I’m not a fan of the mushyness of traditional oatmeal. I like when I can actually see each grain. Does this recipe make the grains expand or do they stay firm.
    Also, I’m thinking of adding some ground chia for the boost of omega-3 and raisins and dried apricots for flavor. Woulda that be good?

    • These stay fairly firm, but you’re not disguising the fact that they’re oatmeal! Chia + omega3 + raisins sounds great: they’re adaptable!

  20. Hi, Cara! These were great. Thank you for the recipe. In case there are any other gluten free types out there who would like to try them, I substituted 1/3 cup of millet flour, 1/3 cup of brown rice flour, and 1/3 cup hazelnut flour for the whole wheat and they turned out very well, in case you were wondering. 🙂

  21. I made these and I love them! I froze them and I defrost two small squares in the fridge overnight for breakfast on the run in the morning.

  24. So I just made these baked for 30 min and noticed that the inside seemed still mushy raw. Is that normal or should I cook longer than 30min?

    • Hm, they’ll definitely solidify more as they cool, but the inside does always stay a little doughy. Hope you enjoyed!

  25. If using applesauce instead of peanut butter (I’m not allergic, but hate the taste of peanut butter!) would you use the same amount (1/4 cup)? Also, what kind of oats do you use? Old fashioned? Instant? Thank you!

  26. can i use white flour instead of wheat??? will it change taste or cooking time?

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