No-Bake Oatmeal-Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
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!
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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
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!
I love anything with oats and seriously need to expand my no-bake list with this heat!
This recipe has all of my favorite things – definitely need to try it. And the no oven part is appealing. Honestly it’s been so hot here that even using the stovetop sounds a little daunting.
I made a similar treat today. Posting on Monday:) You can never go wrong with that combo!
oh my oh my these look so unbelievable!! i love that it’s no bake too. an even faster and easier way to get in my belly – fast! :)
These look absolutely delicious; can’t wait to give them a try!! Love oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate…thanks!! Happy Friday!!
I have been looking for a homemade bar-type snack to eat after workouts. This looks great!
These look yummy and very creative! I love the hot weather, but only in small doses. Mostly I just like to look out the window at the sunshine and flowers. I’ll take 100 degrees over 30 and snow any day, though. One day I’ll move somewhere with year round warmth, until then, I’m hoping we have another unseasonably warm winter.
No-bake treats rule here too! Love your dense and full-of-goodness bars, Michelle!
I just finished making these. (couldn’t wait, I’m six months pregnant and got the craving immediately!) I do have a question though about adding the hot sugar mixture to the oatmeal and chocolate chips. How did you keep your chips from melting immediately? My chocolate melted as I mixed in the boiling mixture, and turned the bars chocolate brown.
They are still extremely delicious, and they were so easy to make… I just wondered if there’s a trick to making them look like your pictures where the chips stayed intact.
Thanks for the recipe! It was a craving saver in these months when I can’t bare turning on the oven! :)
same thing happened today when I made them. I was wondering the same thing!
Hi Emily and snapdabble, You’ll see that in some spots the bars look chocolate brown, and in other spots not as much. Honestly, you probably did a better job at mixing than I did :)
SO much yum. I’ve been looking for a no-bake bar for a few days because it just became hellish in LA… can’t turn on ANYTHING without feeling like i’m going to die. thank you!
Oh all the no bake granola bars, these might be my favorite. Peanut butter!
You had me at “no bake” :)
Oh my gosh. Living now in Mississippi has me dying in this heat! So, no-bake is just what I’m talking about! These look fabulous…definitely going to try. :)
I like summer because of all the outdoor activities we have planned and I do like it warm. Humidity, however, makes my hair frizz and that makes me cranky! :) I’m all for no-bake desserts!
i could’ve written this post. i’m always cold, but have been a little *too* hot this summer and couldn’t get enough of no-bake desserts :)
These look great! Can’t wait to try them. Are they almost like granola bars at all?
Hi Melissa, They are definitely similar!
Um, no offense, Michelle because I have loved all your recipes and this one is no exception, but Melissa…no, these are not like granola bars at all. See the multiple reviews above and below that indicate the same results that I got when I made these-soft, somewhat sticky no-bake cookies, basically. Granted, they are DELICIOUS and, personally, I was pretty pleased that they didn’t look like the pics above because they were a lot “wetter” and tastier than what I thought would be a PB-flavored granola bar. The directions should have been a dead giveaway: pour something boiling hot onto a mix containing chocolate chips…guess what happens when you do that? You’d have to have either magic mixing powers or leave out the chocolate chips to avoid the melting. Again, for me, it was a happy outcome, but if you’re looking specifically for a firm cookie or granola bar, I’d would either a) add an extra cup or two of oats and/or decrease the liquid mix or b) pass on this recipe altogether. But if texture doesn’t matter, by all means proceed because these are very, very tasty.
Um, yes the sun is messing with me bad. I haven’t been a good baker or runner-too hot. I’m so going to comfort myself with a pan of these! They sound and look delicious!
I love no-bake bars and the fact that these are so versatile!
Here is a really simple trick in preventing any kind of chocolate chips melting while mixing it in with a hot mixture. FREEZE YOUR CHOCOLATE CHIPS OVERNIGHT and right before you need them to mix, take them out of the freezer… If you continue to mix too long they will still melt a little bit, but you won’t end up with everything covered in chocolate. This trick has always worked really well for me. Hope this helps!
These look fabulous! I adore no bake things in the summer, the oven heats up our apartment way too much
I love no bake treats – they come together so quickly. These bars look fabulous. Love all the flavors together. Definitely pinning and adding to the “list”
Love it! Finny today I posted a recipe for no bake peanut butter chocolate chip pretzel balls. I am intrigued by your bars, I have to make you recipe!! Looks like a perfect Sunday recipe for me to make!
Oooh, love that you added pretzels! I’m going to have to try yours too!
DC has been totally ridiculous. I usually love summer but I am SO ready for fall. Can’t get here fast enough. I want crisp cool and and boots! This looks like a great granola bar.
Any sort of no-bake cookie is good in my book :) It’s already starting to cool off here, but I think I’ll still be making these.
These look like a keeper for those care packages to school. I will try to give this recipe a test run this weekened. I live in the east too and can’t wait for the cooler autumn weather. It seems kinda a weird that I am going shopping for a Northface jacket for my son…This will be his first experience with snowbelt country!
Perfect for back to school snacks! Looks great!
Now these I need! They look so chewy and perfect. I’m quite happy to say that the Great British Summer has pretty much been non-existent – I’m a winter girl myself. :)
These look awesome!
I love homemade granola bars – especially nobake ones with PB and chocolate in them! Delish!
I love no-bake desserts in the summer. I do love summer and the heat, but I think I will love it/embrace it more once I’m in a house with a/c someday…it’s too hard to sleep at night when it’s so hot! We had record heat in July here in NY so I feel your pain :)
“No-Bake” really caught my attention these days. IT’s way too hot to bake. :) But then the peanut butter and chocolate chips, etc make it divine!
There is a place like that – it is Alaska
First of all, that picture above is VERY misleading! There’s no way the outcome can come out looking like that. I’m pissed that I even made this because this is just the bar form of the peanut butter/chocolate no bake cookies I’ve been making for years. Once you pour the sugar mixture into the dry mix, it turns everything brown because the chocolate melts! This was just a waste of ingredients because I thought I was making the product in the pictures you posted.
I made these delicious looking bars today thanks to the hot weather and my craving for something sweet, but I completely agree with comment above. The reason I tried this recipe in the first place was due to the picture. Unfortunately they looked exactly like the no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies I make when I’m short on ingredients and time. I was a bit disappointed in the end:( very misleading.
Hi Heather, I’m sorry you were disappointed with the end result. I did make these as written. I can tell you that I mixed very quickly and as you can see in the photos, there are some areas where the chocolate melted, but large areas where it didn’t. If you found there was too much melted chocolate for your taste, I would recommend leaving out the chocolate chips when you initially mix it, and then fold them in. That should alleviate any over-melting you experienced.
These were amazing and I don’t think they are like the original version “only in bar form,” they’re BETTER!! If you mix the oat mixture well first then you don’t have to overstir the melted ingredients in (potentially melting the chips). I noticed as I was mixing that some chocolate started to melt so I stopped, poured into the pan and finished it up. My bars turned out PICTURE PERFECT. I think its absurd to write that it’s a “waste of ingredients” when these are so delicious regardless of whether the chocolate melted faster than they planned.