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.
Link Of The Day:
Delicioso!!
I love oats, and this recipe has it!
Would it ruin these to maybe cut the sugar in half? This would be great to send with my son as his snack at school, but I’m afraid with the chocolate chips, sugar, and molasses it will be too high in sugar.
Absolutely LOVE these!!! So yummy! Thanks for the recipe.
Have you tried making these with peanut butter in place of some of the oil? As I was adding the molasses it occurred to me that PB and oats and chocolate would be a good combo here.
You can always experiment, and please report back with results if you do!
These look so good!!! Do you think I can sub coconut sugar for the brown sugar?
You can. I’ve done it. But coconut sugar takes up more space than brown sugar (and weighs less) so you’ll need about 1.5 times as much. Hope that helps!
Hi Katie, can I sub coconut flour/arrowroot for the AP/Spelt flour? If so, what would the measurements be? Thanks so much…love your blog!
No, those would not produce a positive result. If you’re looking for something gluten free, I’m sure there are plenty of similar recipes online. Good luck!
This post is a year old now so I understand if I don’t get a reply, but I thought I’d ask anyway.
I like to bake using gram measurements to ensure accuracy but my gram measurements are off from yours. My jar of coconut oil, olive oil, avo oil, etc. state that a tablespoon is 14g and since there are 8 tbs in 1/2 cup, it seems that there would be 112g of oil in this recipe, not 80g? 32g is a fairly large difference so I just want to be sure I’m using the right measurement. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!
Katie has said that she writes it this way because people using cup measuring spoons will find that when they measure out a tbsp of oil it actually is only about 12g because some stays in the spoon. if you have a scale it’s always best to go by the grams!
Yay print button !!!
Help! I am making this recipe, but dont have applesauce? Any substitutions? Thanks!
Hey all!
In case any of you were trying to bake these with a 10×15 pan like I did, it will still turn out fantastic! Just double the recipe and bake for double the time. I had to bake mine for about 5 mins longer so 55 min total, as they were very soft and would crumble, but remember they also harden a bit while cooling. Mine came out so delicious, and just soft enough. Mmm so good! Thanks Katie! I’ve saved a bunch of your recipes but this is the first one I’ve actually tried to make and it definitely won’t be the last!
I love all your recipes, this one included! I made one substitute and used
Lighter Bake from Sunsweet ® in place of the vegetable oil as I’m trying to reduce my overall fat intake. It caused my bars to turn out darker, but they tasted great! I wrote a review of my success with this recipe and shared info on your cookbook in an article at http://www.therantingvegans.com/2015/08/16/sweet-tooth-cure-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookie-bars-2/.
Delicious! I baked for an extra 5 minutes as the middle didn’t look done…came out perfect.
Excellent. Very delicious. I wanted to let you know that I used 2 flax “eggs” in place of the applesauce (which I don’t eat) and it turned out great. The flax adds a bran-muffin-like healthy chewiness, and it held together well. Mine turned out tall and cakey. Next time I think I’ll use a larger pan. I like that they’re not super sweet; in fact I think I’ll decrease the molasses in the future. Thanks for the recipe – it’s a keeper!!
I made them with :
1cup coconut oil instead of the applesauce (applesauce make it more air puffy in my opinion.. and of-course healthier 🙂
used Agave instead of molasses
used whole spelt flour
and only a pinch of salt (because the lack of applesauce)
turned out amazing… highly recommended !!
thank you!
OKAY. These things are literally amazing. As a pregnant mama who is dying for some yummy treats lately, this is the best thing that could have happened to me! While I had to bake mine for longer and they still seemed a bit gooier than yours (I’m not naturally gifted in the kitchen), they are still so amazing and it’s great to know that there is nothing potentially harmful in them! Your recipes have become my new favorite go-to. YOU ROCK!
This is going to sound crazy, but what could I substitute the applesauce for? I would love to use it but I live in a country where you can buy it…inconceivable!
Mashed banana?