These Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookie Bars are about to change your life. They’re gooey on the inside, made with wholesome ingredients, and kid-friendly!
This oatmeal cookie bars recipe uses all-natural sugar (hey, maple syrup!), white whole wheat flour, rolled oats, and all-natural peanut butter to keep these peanut butter oatmeal bars healthy and better-for-you!
It’s Friday and you deserve a COOKIE BAR. But, these aren’t you average peanut butter cookie bars…
They’re Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars.
You guys died over this sneak peek on Instagram stories, so we rejiggered our content calendar to get these up ASAP. We also made them two more times to make sure they’re perfect…and, well, they are! These peanut butter oatmeal bars are a spin-off of our Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars, but we added in some rolled oats and white whole wheat flour for more of a traditional cookie bar texture.
This recipe is gooey, satisfying, and just the best. They’re not too sweet and you don’t have to worry about refined sugars because these peanut butter cookie bars are made with maple syrup and you can use vegan chocolate chips to keep things 100% dairy free. Here’s what else you need:
Peanut Butter Cookie Bars Ingredients
- Rolled Oats
- White Whole Wheat Flour
- Cinnamon
- Mini Chocolate Chips
- All Natural Peanut Butter
- Eggs
- Maple Syrup
- Vanilla Extract
Let’s talk all-natural peanut butter for a second. We get this question all the time, what are your favorite all-natural peanut butters to bake with? What I like to look for in all-natural peanut butter is: 1. no added sugar and 2. the consistency. You want to make sure that your all-natural peanut butter is drippy and smooth. If the oil is separated from the nut butter, no fear, give it a nice stir and you should be good to go. Here are some of my favorite brands to use when it comes to all-natural peanut butter.
Best All-Natural Peanut Butter Brands
- Smuckers (ALL-TIME FAV)
- Whole Foods
- Fresh Thyme
- Costco
- Trader Joe’s
As you can see I’m just a littttttle bit passionate about peanut butter. Sry not sry.
Lastly, before I share the recipe for these oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip bars, I wanted to talk about ingredient swaps. You guys are the swap queens, so I’m hoping to answer all of those questions here!
Peanut Butter Cookie Bar Swaps
- White whole wheat flour –> I recommend swapping with either all-purpose, whole wheat flour, or a gluten-free flour blend. Swap recommendation is 1:1. Note: Do not swap 1:1 for a nut-based flour such as almond flour, coconut flour, etc.
- Peanut butter –> Good news! Any kind of nut butter works for this recipe! My favorite other than peanut butter is cashew butter! Swap recommendation is 1:1.
- Maple syrup –> If you’re hoping to swap the maple syrup for another kind of sugar, make sure you use a liquid sweetener such as honey or agave. Swap recommendation is 1:1.
If you’re wondering what to swap out for the eggs, then this recipe isn’t for you! This is a nut butter and egg-based recipe, so I wouldn’t suggest nixing those!
Storage
Store these delicious peanut butter oatmeal bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Freezer instructions: to freeze, place cooled bars on a cookie sheet. Then, freeze for 1 hour. Transfer bars from cookie sheet to a freezer-safe gallon-size bag. Remove as much air as possible and freeze for up to 3 months.
More Healthy Dessert Recipes
Looking for more healthy dessert recipes just like this? Check out some of our favorites below!
- Pumpkin Almond Butter Freezer Fudge
- Vegan Peanut Butter Banana Cookies
- Healthy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Fresh Cherry Crisp
- Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
Wet Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and spray an 8x8 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray or line with parchment paper.
- Next, add all of your dry ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk your eggs. Then add the rest of your wet ingredients to the eggs. Mix well.
- Slowly add your dry ingredients to wet ingredients. When ingredients are well combined, pour dough into your baking pan. Spread evenly.
- Bake at 350ºF for 15-18 minutes (depending on your oven) and how gooey you want your bars).
Tips & Notes
- Option to sub any other drippy nut butter such as cashew or almond for the peanut butter.
- Option to sub the white whole wheat flour for a gluten-free flour blend. We do not recommend subbing for coconut flour.
These taste pretty good for “healthy” bars but they are too soft and fall apart too easily. I used thick honey instead of maple syrup (waaay too expensive) and plenty of PB/Almond utter; I baked them extra time but they still crumbled too easily.. I will make them again and try to perfect the recipe.
Great recipe to satisfy my sweet tooth. Prepared as directed and it turned out great!
These are perfect for the mindful eater!! Great for that little dessert craving after a meal. I baked mine for 27 minutes and it turned out perfectly for me. More cake like then fudge like , Thank you!!
I just got a new oven a few days ago and this recipe is the first thing I’ve baked. After 15 minutes they weren’t set in the middle at all. I baked another 3 minutes and still very mushy so I baked another 10 minutes and they were great. Next time I’ll try baking them for 20-22 minutes. I also think I’ll halve the cinnamon so I taste more peanut butter. Super easy so I’ll definitely make again. I used chocolate chip morsels not mini.
I ended up making another batch of these today because everyone loved them yesterday! I baked them 22 minutes and let them sit on rack on counter for 30 minutes before cutting into squares. The middle pieces were still pretty gooey. Maybe that’s how they’re supposed to be?? They looked beautiful when I first removed them from the oven but the middle did sink after 20 minutes or so. I haven’t tried this new batch yet. Since I baked yesterday’s batch 28 minutes total they weren’t gooey at all. My son loved them and said they tasted just like brownies. I’ll let him be the judge of today’s batch. I did use 1/2 tsp cinnamon today. Thanks for such an easy, yummy recipe!
We were looking fo something healthy for dessert. We had all the ingredients, so I said why not. My husband said wow this is better than cookies. Then he said MORE PLEASE! We love it
So happy to hear it!
Delicious! Love the healthy ingredients.
Super easy and very delicious! I used GF cup for cup flour and they turned out really well- may have cooked a few min longer than needed so they were closer to cake, less fudgey. Not super sweet but a perfect sweet treat fix!
There was way too much baking soda in this recipe – really ruined the flavor and texture, though no one else seems to have had a problem with it? Is it supposed to be 1 whole teaspoon for the smallest portion size?
These were SOOOOOOO good!
I added walnuts, flax seeds, protein powder and brewers yeast to make them a little extra healthy. I poured in a little oat milk to offset those additions.
These were gone within 24 hours in our home of three.
Will definitely be making again!
They fulfill the need for something sweet and carby, next time will freeze so they last longer.
I also omitted the cinnamon and used white flour. Thinking of substituting with coconut or oat flour next time. I used regular size chocolate chips as well.
Made these several times and they truly are amazing -healthy but doesn’t taste too healthy perfect medium. I was happy to find something with more peanut butter in it most recipes use too little and way more flour!
These are one of my favorite desserts, too!
This recipe is great! I made a few adjustments: for starters instead of mini chocolate chips i used cocoa nips which is like a super dark unprocessed chocolate which was too bitter to eat i used regular white flour and baking powder as well for the wet ingredients i used soy butter with monk fruit and milk instead of maple syrup i also omitted the cinnamon. The bars were great!
Can i use Honey in place of Maple Syrup
Yes, that works!
This is my all time favorite sweet treat to make! Super easy to throw together with ingredients I always keep in my pantry, and sooo delicious!
I love these tooooo! SO GOOD.
Light and fluffie! Used 1/3 c agave since I wanted it let sweet and didn’t have maple syrup. Thanks for the recipe.
So glad you loved these!
My 4 year old said, “yum! Good job mom” when I made these😁
LOL!!! I love this so much.
These came out perfect! I cooked them for 17 minutes at 350 and did not have any issues with goopiness or dryness. They are super chocolatey and peanutbuttery! Will definitely make again soon 🙂
YAY! Glad you loved them!
I had the same issue with the soppy middle after baking for the suggested time! I did end up baking an extra 10 minutes and they solidified for the most part!! If anyone has that issue, I would continue baking (maybe do a foil tent) until set. 🙂
I don’t get what went wrong since it seems other people followed the recipe and got a solid product. Mine turned out not gooey, but goupy. There’s no cutting it into bars, it’s just like batter. It was starting to get too brown around the edges, and it rose, but when I pulled it out it was jiggly and it sank in the middle after ten minutes or so. I wonder if there’s supposed to be more than a cup oats, or more than 1/4 cup of flour? The wet ingredients outweigh the dry.
I’ve made this recipe 10+ times and have never had an issue! Did you make any flour swaps? Or maple swaps?
I was excited for these bars. Sadly I found them to be quite a let down. Way too much cinnamon. Overpowers all the peanut and chocolate and vanilla flavors. Came out very fluffy as well. Definitely not gooey.
I had the same results. I did substitute Whole Wheat flour for white, but I don’t know if that was the issue. Maybe I should have pulled them from the oven earlier. If I make again, I will bake for less time and use less cinnamon.
Fit Foodie recipes never disappoint, these were awesome! My husband is a sucker for anything PB & Chocolate (well, so am I) and it’s great to have a healthier option. I subbed honey for the maple syrup and we gobbled these gooey bars right up.