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!
These turned out great… A little sweet for me so next time I would defiantly decrease the sugar ( I used sucanat sugar instead). They stayed together much better once they cooled- patience is key!
These are delicious! I just made them and couldn’t wait for them to cool thoroughly….. I burned my tongue a little ☺️
I will definitely be making this recipe again! It may be nice to throw some nuts in there as well, maybe pistachios or macadamia nuts. Next time!! I guess almonds would be the obvious choice, with the almond flour in the recipe, but I tend to stray from the norm.
Love this recipe! Pure cruelty free indulgence! Another great recipe showing the world how delicious the vegan world is! Thank you :)
This recipe was quite good and was a great addition to a cottage weekend. However, I am more partial to more chocolate recipes and don’t think anything can beat your brownies :)
Made these bars this weekend. Oh my, they are wonderful. My poor husband who has been subjected to my “baking experiments” raved that they were one of the best items to come out of the oven. I am allergic to nuts so used 100% oat flour and they came out wonderfully. I am looking forward to experiementing with the receipe by adding dried cherries or other fruits.
I did it yesterday and my daughter already ate 3, her friend one and my husband one…and the comment is always the same; really good. Even though they don’t always understand that I want to try recepies that are vegan, even though we are meat eaters, they still taste everything I do. And I have to say that so far, all that I have tried from your book and your blog, as been approved! I am trying to cut my meat and refined sugar consumption and you recipes help me. You are inpiring.
Thank you and keep at it!
Loved these
These sound amazing! Did you use blanched almond flour, or whole almond meal?
These are amazing. Dangerous, but amazing. We followed the recipe to the letter – it’s the perfect combination of sweet and a little salty (my favorite). My 2-year old and I made these together this morning to eat as a post-lunch treat (he gets a little treat if I can get him to eat more than just ketchup for lunch). That being said, we both just enjoyed one and are looking forward to devouring the rest over the next few days.
OH SHE GLOWS ALRIGHT!!!!! Made’em today and loving every bit so good! thanks for using your mind to create healthy treats!
Oh Angela you she-devil! I just made these and they were super easy to make and fast! So I went out did a 10 mile bike, came home and have proceeded to eat 4 pieces. They are rockin’ my tiny world lady. Nice hustle!
These are really good! The only major change I made was using ground up raw almonds in place of the almond flour since I didn’t have any almond flour. I didn’t blanche the almonds or do anything fancy to them. The bars still held together just fine. I also reduced the cinnamon to only a half a teaspoon.
Oh, man I’m a middle-piece kind of gal! I’ll come over and relieve you of all those pieces! I love that these don’t require any super weird ingredients- I have everything on hand!
These cookie bars are so tasty! I try lots of stuff myself too^^ I love cooking, especially since I’m vegan I create a lot of my own
http://anovamelody.blogspot.com
I have a weakness for toffee and chocolate chips. I can’t wait to try this on the upcoming weekend.
loved it.. Made a double batch. I used regular brown sugar (reduced the amount a bit) but didnt get any toffee flavor. I guess it is specific only for the coconut sugar, then? But overall, loved the outcome :)
These are amazing! Made a double batch to give to newly marrieds as a part of the wedding gift! I almost hated parting with that batch! :)
I have been following your blog for about a month. We found out recently that the cause of my husbands migraines is meat. So ever since the idea of going meat free was pretty daunting. Then I found your website! You have no idea how happy I am. Everything we have tried has been delicious! And the biggest task, kid approved. These bars were fantastic and devoured. :) Thank you for sharing your talent!
I made these cookies on Sunday and they were SO delicious. I actually did a blog post about it! I used chia seeds for the flax egg so instead of using 3 tablespoons of water, I used 5-6. They turned out so well and I’ll definitely be making more of these in the future! Thanks for the recipe :)
These are great and went together really easily. I used sucanat since I don’t have coconut sugar. The flavor is so good, a little bit oatmeal, a little bit chocolate, it’s quite perfect. I gave it 4 stars only because it fell apart a little bit (those crispy edges broke off on at least half my pan) and they seemed oily…the bars left huge oil stains on the napkins. Perhaps I didn’t measure my coconut oil carefully enough? Considering you are a culinary genius I’m sure the fault is mine, and not the recipe’s. Thanks so much for sharing your skills and passion with us!