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Retro-style – but updated, Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars. Think doughy, buttery oatmeal cookie base, layered with creamy peanut butter, and sweet salted chocolate on top. All made with simple, wholesome ingredients: oats, pure maple syrup, natural peanut butter, and dark chocolate. They’re sweet, salty, heavy on the peanut butter, extra chocolatey, gluten-free, and butter-free. Every last bite is truly delicious.
When I think of February, I think Super Bowl Sunday, and then of course, Valentine’s Day. This year, we have the Olympics which makes things even more exciting. I’m sharing a couple appetizer recipes next week that will be great for viewing your favorite winter sport as well as the upcoming Super Bowl too. Lots of fun things this month!
For some reason, when I think of the Super Bowl, I always think of chocolate and peanut butter together. I’m sure it’s because I’m from Cleveland. Ohio is the Buckeye State, which means we all love our chocolate/peanutty treats.
These bars are one of my favorite chocolate-peanut buttter combos yet. They’re somewhat inspired by my lunchroom peanut butter bars. But also by the Twix bars I shared a couple weeks ago. I took elements from both and incorporated them into this recipe.
What’s awesome is that they’re naturally gluten-free, butter-free, and have no added sugar other than pure maple syrup! We’re all loving the more wholesome desserts right now.
Start with the oatmeal cookie
I based this layer off of my mom’s oatmeal cookies, but made things less sweet. Just some oats, almond flour, and maple syrup with eggs and vanilla.
I also used coconut oil in place of vegetable oil, something I’ve been doing for years.
Then, just bake the cookies until set. They taste buttery and perfectly sweet, but with no butter or sugar!
The peanut butter layer
Simply just peanut butter, maple syrup, and coconut oil boiled together to thicken the mix. The secret to making this layer really delicious is to use a peanut butter with just peanuts and salt. Don’t use a no-stir peanut butter that contains oils and/or sugar. You just want a natural peanut butter. This will give you the best flavor and texture.
Pour the peanut butter layer over the oatmeal cookies, then freeze the bars. You only need them to freeze them for 30 or so minutes. This helps the peanut butter set up quickly.
When the peanut butter is chilled and stiff, pour some melted chocolate overtop to finish the layers up. My one piece of advice here is to slice the bars before the chocolate top becomes too hard. This will make the bars much easier to cut and prevents the peanutty filling from getting squished out.
The final review? Slightly chewy and crumbly on the bottom, with the creamiest peanutty filling – that’s perfect salted. The chocolate top adds a nice “crack” with every bite.
Delicious! And great for parties too since these can really feed a crowd!
Looking for easy party desserts? Here are a few ideas:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Blondies
Homemade Vegan Peanut Butter Twix Bars
Caramel Butter Cake with Fudgy Chocolate Frosting
Lastly, if you make these Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
Servings: 24 bars
Calories Per Serving: 322 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
Oatmeal Cookies
- 2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
- 2 cups almond flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Peanut Butter Mix
- 1 cup, plus 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter (just peanuts and salt)
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
- sea salt
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9×13 inch baking dish with parchment paper. 2. To make the cookies: In a mixing bowl, beat together the oats, almond flour, baking soda, salt, coconut oil, maple syrup, eggs, and vanilla. Press the dough into the prepared baking dish. Bake 25-30 minutes, until lightly golden. 3. To make the peanut butter mix: In a medium pot, mix 1 cup peanut butter, the maple syrup, and coconut oil. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook 2 minutes, then remove from the heat. Pour over the oatmeal cookies. Freeze 30 minutes, until firm. 4. Melt together the chocolate and 1/3 cup peanut butter in the microwave. Let cool 5 minutes and then spread the chocolate over the peanut butter mix. Return to the fridge to set, about 10 minutes, then slice. The chocolate will not be totally set, but slicing is easier this way. Keep in the fridge.
Notes
If the Cookie Dough is Dry: add 1/4 cup additional melted coconut oil to moisten it.
This post was originally published on February 4, 2022
Made these yesterday for Valentine’s today. Although they were still very tasty and the recipe was properly followed, they didn’t turn out like we expected. Perhaps a thinner base and thicker pb layer would do the trick. I would make again though, but would make the above modifications. Thanks for sharing these recipes! ?
Hey Erin,
Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try and sharing your feedback!! xTieghan
I substituted regular flour for almond flour, as a small bag of almond flour was almost $10.00. The bottom wasn’t particularly crumbly but very tasty. The peanut butter layer was invisible once the chocolate was on top. The flavor was there but not the thickness which I was hoping for. These are good but not great as many of Tieghan’s cookies are.
Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try Nancy!! xTieghan
I made these yesterday because they looked so good, and followed the advice to add 1/4 cup extra coconut oil. I found that it was very crumbly while I was cutting it, but after it had been in the refrigerator over night, I was able to pick up my bar (which made for a very nice lunch treat) and eat it without any crubmles and without making a mess. Tieghan keeps saying it’s supposed to be crumbly, and the recipe also says to keep it refrigerated. I think that’s the actual secret – serve and eat these cold. The peanut butter in the chocolate topping layer keeps the chocolate from getting too hard when you’re eating it – it won’t fall apart.
Hey Nicole,
Awesome!! Thanks for giving the recipe a try, I love to hear that it was a hit!! xxT
Made these yesterday to take to a Superbowl party. As others mentioned, the base is very crumbly and they were hard to eat without making a huge mess for the host of the party! I also had to reduce the baking time to 20 minutes, as they were already very brown at that point. Not sure if I will make again.
Hi Deb,
Thanks for giving the recipe a try, sorry to hear they weren’t enjoyed, the base is meant to be crumbly:) xTieghan
I made these while visiting my parents, and we all LOVED them! They turned out great; the bottom layer was a bit crumbly, but definitely held together. The pb layer was thinner than in the pics, but we all thought having the bottom layer less sweet went great with the pb and chocolate. Thanks for a great recipe! Will definitely make again.
Hey Susanne,
Awesome!! Thanks for giving the recipe a try, I love to hear that it was a hit!! xxT
Hi!
I substituted the butter in the batter with 2 over ripe bananas and it worked so well and halved the amount of brown sugar for the batter and it worked out great! (Just cutting some calories) Everything else including the Caramel I kept the same and it was awesome !
Hey Cibi,
Awesome!! Thanks for giving the recipe a try, I love to hear that it was a hit!! xxT
This was easy and so delicious! The oatmeal layer was soft and moist and just the right amount of crumbly. I was surprised by how thick it was compared to the PB and chocolate layer but I actually think it worked out great! If there was more PB or chocolate I think we would’ve lost the flavor of the oatmeal. I made these for my vegan friend so I subbed bob’s egg replacement for the eggs and it turned out great!
Hey Sam,
Awesome!! Thanks for giving the recipe a try, I love to hear that it was a hit!! xxT
I followed the recipe exactly and I had the same issue a lot of other people had. The bottom oat layer is so crumbly it won’t come out of the pan without falling apart. It’s also much thicker than the photo. The other two layers taste great but are much thinner than pictured. If I tried to make again I would have less oats in the bottom and maybe add peanut butter for some flavor. I’ve loved all the other recipes I’ve tried! This one seems like the measurements are off.
Hey Lindsay,
Thanks for giving the recipe a try, the bottom part is meant to be crumbly:) Sorry, all of the measurements are correct! xTieghan
Agreed with comment on base being too crumbly, so disappointed because it fell apart. I felt like I missed an ingredient.
Hi Dorinda,
Sorry you didn’t enjoy the recipe, the base is meant to be crumbly:) xTieghan
I used butter instead of coconut oil and unfortunately the oatmeal bar was very crumbly to the point I will throw out.
Hi Mary,
Sorry to hear the recipe was not enjoyed, the oatmeal bar is meant to be crumbly:) If it tastes good, no need to waste the food. xTieghan
Literally obsessed w these. Such an easy recipe and so so delicious. I will 100000% be making them again. Also love the use of almond flour and natural sweetener
Hey Sarah,
Wonderful!! Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try, I am so glad to hear it was enjoyed!! ?xTieghan
Hi – I just wanted to add my experience here. Like others I think we made this recipe because of our love for chocolate and peanut butter and the awesome food photograph of the bars. I am surprised to read that this recipe was tested.
Reading through the comments, I share the same issues:
1) Base is too crumbly. I made sure to not overbaked it and so I took it out at 20min. It was lightly golden. The base does not taste like a cookie. It has a muffin texture. It doesn’t have much flavor but I don’t mind it.
2) Base is significantly thicker than what is pictured. My base was over double what is in your photograph. I think the ratios are off as the top two layers are very thin. I wonder if two eggs was too much and giving the dough too much lift?
3) Make sure you keep 1/3 cup of peanut butter to mix with the chocolate topping. I made this mistake and caught it just in time to scoop it out. The 1/3 cup of peanut butter should be included in a separate section for the chocolate topping.
Even with these issues, the bar still taste good just not great.
I will make these again but will find a healthy cookie recipe to put under the top two layers.
Appreciate you putting these recipes out for us to experiment with!
Hi vivienne,
Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try and sharing your notes. First of, all of my recipes are tested several times before I share with my readers. If I do not absolutely love the recipe, trust me, I won’t share it:)
The base is meant to be crumbly, it is a recipe from my mom’s oatmeal cookies which are crumbly cookies.
What size pan did you use? All of my measurements are correct and based on how I made the recipe. Thanks for giving it a try! xTieghan
These are the yummest bars!! I really enjoyed this recipe.
Hey Danelle,
Happy Sunday!! Thanks a lot for giving this recipe a go, I love to hear that it was enjoyed!! xxT
Flavor was awesome! I know the bottom is supposed to be crumbly, but mine was kind of falling apart/separating from top. Any thoughts? Regardless, definitely will be making this one again.
Hey Claudia,
Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try! Sorry to hear about the separation, was there anything you may have adjusted in the recipe? Did you allow the bars to freeze? Let me know how I can help! xTieghan
I went by the recipe, so my first thought was that I didn’t let them freeze completely. Loved the recipe, so it’s no skin off my back to try them again 🙂 thanks for always putting out great recipes! I try to make one fun meal/snack a week and I’m consistently coming back to your recipes. I’ve loved every one that I’ve tried!
Hi Claudia,
Happy Friday!! I am thrilled to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for making it! xTieghan
My new favorite treat. ❤️ I set them outside in minus 2 degrees temperature (Minnesota) – it didn’t take long for them to firm up. After adding the melted chocolate, I didn’t wait for them to cool. Yum!
Hi Karen,
Happy Sunday!! Thanks a lot for giving this recipe a go, I love to hear that it was enjoyed!! xxT