Houston, we have a working oven! This is what I screamed to Eric when I turned on our newly installed oven for the first time this weekend. To celebrate this momentous occasion I made something I’ve been craving for the past 6 weeks – warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies. [Fact: store-bought cookies just aren’t the same.] Then I made oatmeal cookie bars. Somehow I convinced Eric that these were an “anniversary gift” that I made “just for him” (he’s been in OSG baked good withdrawal during this kitchen reno), but we all know that this ready-to-pop, basketball smugglin’ preggo lady planned on eating her fair share complete with Coffee Shop Worthy Caramel Hazelnut Milk. Yea, it was a good weekend. I hope my oven and I shall never part again.
What can I tell you about these bars? Well, first off, we could not stop eating them. Eric said, “They are so light, I feel like I could eat 6 of them without feeling sick!” I suppose that’s a good thing? The gluten-free cookie base is made of up rolled oats (some of which I ground into a flour for binding purposes) and almond flour, just like my favourite GF + vegan cookies on the blog. There aren’t any gums or starches to speak of and because of this they are quite delicate when they first come out of the oven, but the crust bakes up crisp, chewy, and slightly caramelized so it’s a terrific balance. Let me tell you – the crispy corner pieces are prime real estate! Only your favourite people are worthy of the corner pieces. If you have one of those “Baker’s Edge” brownie pans, now would be a good time to put it to use. Then you can avoid that awkward moment when you hand the middle piece to a friend and take the corner piece for yourself.
I used coconut sugar to give the bars a gorgeous dark golden hue and a hint of toffee/caramel flavour. The added bonus when using coconut sugar is that it has a low glycemic index compared to other sugars (35), so it won’t spike your blood sugar as quickly. According to my logic, this means I can eat twice as many. Correct? Phew.
I don’t think I need to tell you that these are great with a scoop of vegan ice cream, but I’ll throw it out there just in case. We turned one into an open-faced ice cream sandwich by chilling a bar and serving it with a scoop of vegan ice cream on top. Oh my lanta. It’s great to have an oven.
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Toffee Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie Bars
Yield
12 bars
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
These cookie bars are soft, delicate, and chewy in the middle with a crispy outer edge. Coconut sugar lends a wonderful toffee flavour to these bars. Try serving them with vegan ice cream for an easy dessert or just enjoy them with some homemade almond milk. Recipe adapted from my vegan and GF cookies.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon (8 g) ground flax
- 3 tablespoons (45 mL) water
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (75 mL) virgin coconut oil, softened
- 2 tablespoons (30 g) natural smooth almond butter
- 3/4 cup (120 g) coconut sugar*
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt or pink Himalayan salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (108 g) oat flour**
- 3/4 cup (75 g) gluten-free rolled oats
- 3/4 cup (75 g) almond flour
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon (60 g) non-dairy mini chocolate chips, divided
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C) and line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper.
- Mix the ground flax and water in a small bowl or mug and set aside to thicken.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the coconut oil, almond butter, and sugar with electric beaters until combined.
- Pour in the flax mixture and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
- Add the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and beat again.
- Finally add in the oat flour, rolled oats, almond flour, and 1/4 cup of chocolate chips (reserving the 1 tablespoon for later) and beat until combined.
- Spoon dough into prepared pan and spread out until smooth and even. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top and press down. I use a pastry roller to roll the dough out even.
- Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, until lightly golden and firm around the edges. (The edges will be high and the middle portion will be sunken a bit. This is all normal!)
- Gently place the pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. Then, carefully lift out the bars and place directly on cooling rack for another 10 minutes or so, until mostly cool. Slice and enjoy! Note: The bars will crumble slightly if sliced warm, but they firm up nicely when cooled.
- Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or in the freezer (tightly wrapped and placed in a freezer bag) for up to 3 to 4 weeks.
Tip:
- * Instead of coconut sugar, you can try using unpacked light brown sugar.
- ** To make the freshly ground oat flour, add 3/4 cup rolled oats into a high speed blender. Blend on high until a very fine flour forms. This will make 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon of oat flour. Or you can simply use store-bought oat flour.
- This recipe is an updated version as of May 24/16. The previous version did not contain almond butter, and it had 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil. Everything else is the same.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Cheers to September, baking, and working ovens!
I made these last night. I liked that they are not overly sweet. I brought them into work and my co-workers loved it. thanks for the great recipe.
Just made these, what can I say but wou. Got your book recently and well eveything I have made so far has been a hit. Even my partner loves your meals, not bad for a meat eter!
Thanks a million
So so good. Just made these tonight and they are a 10!
I needed an easy recipe that I could mix up quickly with ingredients I had on hand, so just whipped these up tonight. One bowl, about 30 minutes, and my house smells like heaven! My husband begged for a taste (I made them to bring to an event), and he grinned from ear to ear and said that they were incredible! These are a keeper!
Hi Angela! I made these last year and they were amazing even with brown sugar subbed for coconut. However I did not measure how much 3/4 oats would have made into flour. You see I have oat flour but I don’t know how much would equal 3/4 of pure oats… Please let me know thank you!
Also to add on that, can I make these into cookies rather than bars?
These look so good! I can’t wait to try them this weekend!
Do we have to use almond flour for the recipe? Cant we do oat flour all the way?
I had the same question at first! I found out that there is a textural and taste difference that you would notice if you just used oat flour. Almond meal is a tad expensive, but you wouldn’t get the same nutty, toffee flavor without it.
My boyfriend and I absolutely LOVE this recipe. It’s our all time favorite dessert! The only thing we have to say is that it’s very sweet. So the second time around we cut the amount of sugar in half and it was perfect! After a day in the refrigerator, they firm up nicely without becoming hard, making it a perfect snack (along with some ice cream!) Thank you for this recipe :)
These bars were delicious. I found them a bit crumbly so I would reduce the oats or oat flour by a 1/4 cup next time.
One of the BEST Dessert/Snack Bars I have ever made and tasted! The coconut sugar really does give the bars that toffee flavour/look. These will be a staple in my kitchen. Perfect with a cup of tea :)
Grain-free version of this – yum yum!
After a few experimentations, this one is the best so far:
Replace the 3/4 c gluten-free rolled oats with cashew meal
Replace the 3/4 c gluten-free oats with slivered almonds
I also reduced the chocolate chips to 1/8 cup and mixed them all in rather than topping with part of them. I found it too sweet with 1/4 cup and melted on top.
These were really disappointing. :( The flavor was good, but I wouldn’t call them toffee-like at ALL in flavor or texture. The texture once cooled was dry and hard and a bit crumbly, like shortbread or really thick graham cracker crust. Totally screaming for SOME kind of moisture. I would add date puree, applesauce, or almond milk and nut butter perhaps. For now I’m going to cut the bars in half and make sandwich cookies with some kind of filling.
I just made these tonight and they are amazing!! Definitely try to let them cool since they will stay together better but they are so so good! Thank you for the recipe :)
Just made this recipe and loved it! I need to make this for a large group. If I double the recipe, will I double the amount of coconut oil too? Thanks.
I’m a brand new vegan and made this and it’s sooo good. I didn’t have almond flour so I used garbanzo bean flour, I also used about 1/4 cup of golden oreo cookies and ground it into a powder, then added 2 more tbs of coconut oil. Even my non-vegan mother raves about them
I just had to share that I make these so often!!! They are so good and delish. I love adding coconut and a tbsp of PB.
I wanted to bring something spectacularly delicious to the last meeting of a volunteer training I was in. When I mentioned I ate a vegan diet, they had no idea what I was talking about. The team leader didn’t know either but she was gluten-free. So this recipe looked perfect. AND IT WAS! Easy to put together. And it could not have come out better. Clean cut bars. Moist. Beyond tasty. Best introduction to veganism I could have given this group.
I have just made these and they are extremely easy to make and sooooo delicious!
I made these yesterday to bring to a huge party, everyone loved them, and nobody could believe that they were vegan!
Great recipe, they were so yummy – i subbed the almond flour for 1/2 cup brown rice flour, and olive oil for coconut oil. They came out really yummy, oh and I made them into cookies.
Hi Tui, I’m so happy to hear the recipe turned out well! Glad you enjoyed the cookies. :)