No-Bake Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
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Has it felt like the surface of the sun in your neck of the woods this year? It has certainly been ungodly hot in here in Pittsburgh. Some people bask in the glory of blazing hot summer days. I am not one of those people. For someone who constantly complains about being cold and needs to carry a hoodie into a movie theater in the middle of July, you’d think I’d enjoy a little warmth. A little warmth, yes. Sweltering, disgusting heat and humidity? No thank you. Once we reach more than two days above 90 degrees, I start doing the equivalent of a rain dance, which I can only hope brings about fall weather sooner rather than later. I can’t help it. The heat and humidity make me miserable – I get a headache, get cranky and am generally intolerable. If I could create a climate where it’s in the mid-70’s, sunny and breezy for eight months out of the year and then cold and snowy for November through February, I’d move there in a second. I’m not aware of any such place, so I’ll continue to hide in the air conditioning until it cools down a bit. Although I still do my fair share of baking during the summer, I try to minimize the time spent over the stove and with the oven blasting. Enter the wonder of no-bake cookies and bars!
No-bake recipes are fabulous. They usually require less than 15 minutes of your time, no oven, and are the perfect way to satisfy any instant gratification you require from a sweet treat. If you have kids, these types of recipes are also great to have on hand for quick after-school snacks. Or maybe a bunch of ravenous teenagers end up at your place, ready to eat you out of house and home. They’re also great for mom if you’re in dire need of something sweet, don’t have a lot of time and want something easy. Then these are your best friend.
Feel free to make all sorts of substitutions to this recipe. Use almond or cashew butter, Nutella or Biscoff, different flavors of chocolate chips, etc. You could even stir in chopped nuts, dried fruits or marshmallows at the end. Have fun, be creative, and keep cool these last few weeks of summer!
One year ago: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Two years ago: Beer Waffles with Cinnamon-Caramel Apples
Three years ago: Zucchini Bread
Four years ago: Italian Bread
Five years ago: Chicken Spread[/donotprint]
No-Bake Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
Ingredients
- 3 cups (243 g) old-fashioned oats
- 2 cups (360 g) semisweet chocolate chips, divided
- 1 cup (258 g) creamy peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (122 ml) milk
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
Instructions
- Line an 8-inch or 9-inch square baking dish with parchment paper and set aside. (You can use a 9x13-inch if you want thinner bars.)
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the oatmeal, 1 cup of the chocolate chips, the peanut butter and vanilla extract; set aside.
- In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, milk, butter and salt over medium heat. Bring to a full boil (there should be bubbles covering the entire surface) and boil for 2 minutes.
- Immediately pour the hot mixture (carefully!) over the oatmeal mixture and quickly stir to combine, ensuring that all of the oatmeal mixture has been moistened. Turn the mixture into the parchment-lined pan and use the back of a spoon to press it evenly into the pan. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of chocolate chips over top and gently press them into the top of the mixture.
- Allow the bars to sit at room temperature to set up, which takes about 30 minutes. Use the edges of the parchment paper to lift the bars out of the pan and cut into squares. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
THESE ARE THE BEST COOKIES I HAVE EVER MADE!
Please delete this recipe. Too many wasted ingredients! But my bad I should have read the comments first…
Fail. All the chocolate chips melted immediately from the boiling mixture. Not even waiting for it to set cause it looks so wet. In the trash it goes. Followed the directions exactly
I am really disappointed in this recipe. The picture doesn’t look anything like the final product and I followed the recipe exactly. This recipe is basically a mush of melted chocolate with oats. Wayyyy too much chocolate and wayyyyy too sweet. I wasted all my ingredients and I’ll be chucking this in the garbage. I was expecting a chewy oat bar with a bit of chocolate. This recipe is anything but.
These look really good! I love no-bake recipes for doing with my toddler.
I made this recipe last week. They look nothing like the picture and I do not see how they possibly could. Adding boiling hot liquid to the oatmeal/pb/chocolate mix will certainly turn everything dark. Not what I was expecting. The bars were enjoyed, but I am still in search of the recipe for the oatmeal bars shown in the picture.
I am known for my banking skills and the best recipes. This recipe is quite amazing. Although it looks and sounds like an average bar, it tastes far from. I am disabled and mixed mine in a mixer so it came out more chocolatey looking but it was so good even I ate one, and I don’t eat anything due to ibs. This recipe will be passed on and on to both friends and family.
So I just whipped this up, its cooling on my counter right now. How did you get add the sugar mixture without completely annihilating the chocolate chips in the oatmeal mixture? I added mine and it instantly melted them all and its not a chocolatey mixture…. not that its a bad thing….
Hi there. I’m assuming this isn’t you – they copied and pasted your whole recipe on G+. I would love to share your recipe there with a link to your post if I may – just let me know. Good stuff!
https://plus.google.com/104335239803191367590/posts/eGuC4Gjqgin
I made these. if you want it to look like the picture, after you’ve spread the bar in the pan sprinkle the two cups of chocolate on top. instead of pouring the hot mixture over top of the chocolate, which causes it to melt.
Tried it with almond butter, son is allergic to peanuts, turned out great.
I made these and wrote about them here. They were great! I didn’t think they were too sweet. Maybe people cut them into large slices? The recipe says there are 16 servings in a 9×9 pan which makes for a tiny bar, just a few small bites.
I would totally make these again.
These tasted great, but yes…turned chocolate brown like others have said. That didn’t deter me, but I do think 2 cups of sugar was overboard. I think the Aussie said it best when she said Americans seem to like things overly sweet. These were crazy sweet. I have kind of sworn of white sugar lately, using things like dates, agave, etc. and clearly, that’s part of it. But even with a love for regular sugary treats, these were SO sweet that they almost hurt my teeth. And I’m a huge fan of sweet treats!
So I can totally agree that these don’t look like the picture. However, they are still delicious and hardly a waste of ingredients! I think in this world where we can so easily gain access to whatever we want to eat whenever we want it, people become very spoiled! They were dee-lish. Period.
Hi, this is my first attempt at a recipe from this site. Finally. I made these bars as I wanted what was in the pic, a different no-bake bar. . Basically its kind of a deconstructed no-bake cookie in bar form by leaving out cocoa & using choc/chips. I followed the recipe “as written”. I ended up w/a wet, heavy light colored no-bake bar. It wasn’t tasty because I got more of white sugar liquid taste. They were real soft too after setting up. As for adding MORE than 3 cups of oatmeal, no way. Don’t want a dry bar & too much white sugar is probably the error vs blaming a 2 minute boiling point. Sometimes at home when a recipe is developed we have our own “personal touches” to accomplicing a recipe successfully where other folks can’t get it done “like the pic” & feel a waste of ingredients was the end result. I do believe there’s too much white sugar. Therefore I would add the peanut butter & vanilla to the saucepan & reduce the sugar to 1 & 1/2 cups would may help, then stir the chips in after the hot PB is mixed in with the oats. Or just sprinkle on the chips after the oat mixture is in the pan.
I wonder how this recipe would turn out if the sugar, butter & milk were omitted hence eleminating the cooking in the saucepan, and mixing together half of one 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk to the creamy peanut butter & vanilla extract in a separate bowl …then in another bowl adding oatmeal & the dry ingredients & choc/chips. Then pour the PB mix into the the oat mix & stir until mixed thoroughly. Press in.a pan, let ’em set up & eat them. Any thoughts on this? THX!
for anybody is wondering about calories..
I just calculated the calories for the bars, and without the chocolate chips they are about 310 a piece!