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.
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 tonight by request of my husband since he was being tempted by some non-vegan chocolate chip cookie bars at his friend’s house (it’s funny what foods you find tempting and which ones are easy to pass up, isn’t it?). I used unrefined cane sugar since I didn’t have any coconut sugar, and the substitute worked well. I left them in for 20 minutes, but next time I might bump it up to 25 minutes because these are very soft (they’re definitely not like the picture, even after cooling). However, I don’t care that mine didn’t exactly turn into bars – they taste great! I’m not GF, but it’s nice to have another GF dessert recipe in my arsenal. Thanks!
Does the almond flour need to be blanched, or will whole almond meal work? Thanks for the info!
Please oh please remove this recipe from your site! I need some help staying away from these! Its AMAZING! I can’t stop making or eating these. Even my husband who refuses to eat anything remotely healthy, tried these when he was desperate. He ate the whole pan!! My kids get so excited when they see me pull these out of the oven. I have made it too many times to count. YUM!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, absolutely delicious, I just made these bars and they are my new favorite!!!! They are soooooo good!!! You never disappoint me with your recipes you are amazing at what you do!!!
Made these tonight, definitely ate a few while they were still in the hot crumbly stage. I used unpacked dark brown sugar as I didn’t have light brown or coconut sugar and they still turned out great! Not too sweet. I’ve eaten so many I don’t think I’ll have room for dinner. Thanks Angela!
I made these 3 days ago and my partner and parents loved them. They are all gone already. Am making another batch today. Have to say delicious!!!!
These were delicious! Yes, that statement was unfortunately written in the past tense. I sadly polished off the last square of these for breakfast this morning. They disappeared in record time. I made them yesterday, and between my husband, mom, and I, we wiped them out in less than 24 hours. They were that good!! Can’t wait to try your pumpkin spin on them.
As with many of your recipes, I have great success with my family asking me to make them again. This tasty treat didn’t last long in our house. I pick up extra kids after school and I am always testing new recipes on them, this was a huge hit with them.
These are really great! They were a great hit at our dinner party last week. Yesterday I tried the pumpkin ones as well, and I have to say these even came out better. I think I baked these a bit too long, so next time I’ll shorten the baking time and see whether they come out equally moist as the pumpkin ones. Both are great in their own right, though. Thanks for this great recipe, Angela!
Yum! Just made these last night and they are divine! I’m eating one (okay, two) right now with my morning cup of coffee. The only change I made was to use raisins instead of chocolate chips so my son can take it school and have it as a fun breakfast treat (you’ll have to make these for Adriana when she’s old enough!). Thanks so much for the recipe!!!
Hi Angela, I love your recipes and your cookbook! I’m just trying to make these now and I’m a little confused. Do you melt the coconut oil or beat it into the sugar while its solid like you would cream butter and sugar? Thanks!
Made these at the weekend and they were a massive hit with everyone who tried them. I used polenta as I didn’t have any almond flour and they were delicious. Great recipe :-)
I’ve now made these and the pumpkin squares and while they are both delish, these ones didn’t last long enough to cool down. My family inhaled them!!!
Amazing :) Fun to make. Can’t wait to try the pumpkin recipe!
These are great. I made them last night. I didn’t feel like making oat flour so just subbed almond flour for it. Also didn’t have any vanilla. It didn’t matter-they were fantastic. I think next time I’ll reduce the amount of coconut sugar and increase the oats just to make it a little more healthy. Also, the choc chips are a nice addition but definitely not necessary. They are sweet and gooey enough without. I stored in frig and they were even better the next day. Great recipe. I would not sub coconut flour in these for either the almond or oat flour. What makes these great is their “gooeyness.” I think the texture would be wrong with coconut flour.
Absolutely loved these. They felt oily/greasy to the touch, but didn’t taste too oily. I can’t believe it took me this long to discover coconut sugar!
These came out beautifully and were delicious! I use your cookbook and website weekly. You have the best recipes and such a great positive vibe. Thank you for sharing!!
So glad I literally stumbled on this page! I can’t wait to make these oatmeal cookie bars.
These bars came together easily for me right before a Halloween party this year.
I missed the Almond flour ingredient when I was grocery shopping so improvised with homemade Almond meal, and I used a larger pan than the 8×8. Other than that I followed the recipe to a ‘t’.
My bars were DELICIOUS and had a high yum factor. They were however, very crumbly (especially the centre squares). Will try again with all the proper ingredients and tools as written.
I made these for my boyfriend and myself last night and they were amazing! I love the subtle saltiness from the sea salt, and the texture and taste of the bars fool you into thinking you’re eating the most decadent dessert. The only variation I made was to cut the coconut sugar down to 1/2 cup. I had great results!