True story:
I was once on national television… in my underwear. 😕
It was when I was 5 years old, on a popular children’s show similar to Sesame Street. The goal of the segment was to teach young children how to get dressed by themselves: this was in the early 90s, therefore footage is thankfully not immortalized online.
Possibly even more fun than the filming process was when the show aired and everyone reconvened for a viewing party. One child’s mother brought in three plates of gooey chocolate chip cookie bars for the occasion, and not a single person left that day without having asked for the recipe. The bars would become a staple in my childhood home for many years afterwards.
Today’s recipe is a healthy makeover of those addictive chocolate chip cookie bars.
I played around to find the perfect amount of applesauce to lower the fat, calories, and sugar while still maintaining the bars’ seductively gooey texture. The subtly-strong flavor of the surprise ingredient—molasses!—takes these bars completely over the top.
They are sure to win you over!
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups spelt or all-purpose flour (180g) (oat flour works; the texture is just a bit gummier)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup rolled oats (20g)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar or date sugar (90g)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup to 1 cup chocolate chips, depending on how chocolatey you want the bars to be
- 1/2 cup vegetable or coconut oil (80g)
- 1/2 cup applesauce (120g)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (9g)
- pinch stevia, or 2 tbsp sugar of choice
- 3 tbsp blackstrap or regular molasses (43g)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line the bottom of an 8×8 pan with parchment paper, then set aside. In a mixing bowl, stir together the first 6 ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together all liquid ingredients, then pour wet over dry and stir to form a batter. Spoon into the prepared pan. Bake 25 minutes. Makes 15-24 squares, depending on how large you cut them. (The ones in the photos are cut from 24.) I love the unique molasses flavor in these bars, but you can always substitute pure maple syrup or agave or honey (vegans don’t use honey) if you’d prefer.
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Yum! Made these today & they are beautiful.
I used wholemeal SR Flour, vegetable oil & rice malt syrup
(instead of molasses).
I also ran out of Choc chips so had to use Mini M&M’s
I made these today and they are delicious!! WOWEE! I can’t believe there’s no egg or dairy. I read all the comments and was concerned that these might turn out a little gooey. I tweaked the recipe slightly by adding an additional generous 1/8 tsp of baking soda. I was hoping to encourage the bars to take on a little more cake-like texture. I thought this might lighten it up and allow it to cook all the way through more thoroughly. The other thing I did different, following the suggestion of another commenter, was to cook the bars at 350’F for about 35-40 minutes rather than 325’F for 25. The reason I increased the cooking time was that the first 2 times I pulled the bars out they were still sticky in the middle. When I finally took them out of the oven I let them *cool completely*, then cut them with a serrated knife so I didn’t smush them. They turned out so yummy it’s really almost crazy. My son’s friend, a known junk food eater, ate one and fell in love with these. Just an fyi – I used AP Flour, vegetable oil and honey (instead of the molasses).
Wow, talk about easy to make, I just made these with my dominant hand in a cast! They are so good, too. Thanks Katie.
Can you substitute applesauce for another ingredient?
Oh my goodness, these cookie bars are delicious!!! I will definitely be making these again AND I will be recommending them to everyone I know. Great recipe, Katie! 🙂
I liked the recipe, but had to cook it longer as I had 2 pans cooking at once. but they worked great.
I just put in raisins instead of chocolate chips…can’t wait ’til they are cool
Can you make these without the molasses?
oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my FAVORITE
You can try maple syrup. If you do, please be sure to report back here with your results.
Cck, I love your recipes and tell anyone who listens about how you are very talented, gifted in your creations. I’m a big fan, I am thankful that you decided to teach us all how to eat sweets, pancakes…stroganoff and lentil stew. I make a lot of recipes.
One recent concern; the advertising banner. They advertise unhealthy things on there that go against your core value of eating less ingredients and sugar…and eating far more nutritients. Yoplait advertised as a healthy after school snack kind of cheapens things. Your site is beautiful to look at but the big red banner takes up my tablets screen when I first get to your site. Its really not your fault. Nestle and conagra can spend a lot more money than companies who pledge to use safe wholesome ingredients. And I know you don’t prescreen or control the banners. I wanted to give you feedback because I appreciate the great recipes and cooking instructions.
I loved it
OKAY I am sooo happy I found your website! Your recipes are easy and healthy! even better is that they taste AH MAZ ING!! THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing your awesome recipes! I made this recipe with Pastry flour. I cant stop eating them! :)AGAIN THANK YOU!
Much love from a small kitchen in California! – NANCY
Good morning, Katie!
I made these bars last night and they turned out great. My husband was thrilled!
Could they be cut and frozen, do you think?
Xxo
As a 23 year marathoner at age 61 and still registered for 5 marathons Oct. 2014-Apr. 2015, I can appreciate how continuous running isn’t for everyone. I find sugar intake to be the main ingredient to weight control, feeling good/bad, and enabling how strong we feel when exercising. Can you address how you control sugar intake and substitutes in order to keep your weight and appetite under control?
Lovely photos Katie! I always love having a look at your recipes, although, I wish you ate Paleo so I could enjoy more than a handful of your recipes. :0)
These look amazing! I try to do everything sugar free with stevia and Erythritol, do you think I could add a bit more molasses to the brown sugar needed to my Erythritol/Stevia mix? Do you have a recommendation on the amount of molasses to add? Can’t wait to try these!
P.s. Beautiful photo!
You can always experiment! Edible experiments can be fun!
I just made this recipe as a GLUTEN FREE VERSION. I used: 1/2 cup oat flour, 1/2 cup brown rice flour, 1/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup potato starch, 1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum. This is what we usually use for our generic gluten free flour mix. It turned out extremely well. It was gooey and cakey just like we like it. I think I will leave out the extra 2 tsp of sugar next time as it was a bit sweet and we are going to try it with Maple instead of Molasses as well. We are serious maple fans. THANKS FOR THE GREAT RECIPE!