Peanut Butter Oat Bars

Crafted with healthy ingredients and so easy to make, these peanut butter oat bars are an absolute must-try if you’re looking for a snack.

Energy bites and bars have become super popular in recent years, and that’s simply because they make so much sense. They give you a quick boost of energy with the healthy ingredients that they pack in, and are so easy to make too.

These peanut butter oat bars are no different - they can be made in advance and stored for whenever you need a quick healthy snack to enjoy.

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Ingredients For the Recipe
Kitchen Tools Needed
How to Make the Peanut Butter Oat Bars
Frequently Asked Questions
Tips & Tricks to Get the Recipe Right
Recipe
Discussion

Ready to give them a little try? Here’s all you need to know about them before you do.

Ingredients For the Recipe

You’ll need just three simple ingredients to make these oat bars. It’s literally that easy.

1 cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup honey
2 ¾ cups rolled oats
1 tablespoon Butter (for coating the mold)

Zoom image of Peanut Butter Oat Bars on a plate

Kitchen Tools Needed

How to Make the Peanut Butter Oat Bars

Once you have the ingredients all ready, here’s what you need to do to make the oat bars from scratch.

Take the desired mold and prepare it by coating it with butter.

Melt the peanut butter and the honey together in a medium sauce pan over medium heat.

add some oats to the honey mixture and mix properly

Add the oats to the pot and stir for another more minute until well combined.

pour the mixture and spread it properly into the mould and freeze it

Pour the mixture into the prepared mold and press it flat. Leave the mixture in the fridge for 1 hour before cutting into bars and serving.

once chilled cut Peanut Butter Oat Bars into pieces and serve

Before you serve, cut the wanted shapes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Else Can I Add to the Peanut Butter Oat Bars?

These classic peanut butter flavored bars are a total crowd-pleaser, and taste great all on their own, but if you really want to bring some extra flavor and deliciousness into the mix, here are a few good options to consider.
You can add some mini dark chocolate chips or dark chocolate chunks into the mixture. The intense flavor of dark chocolate works wonderfully with peanut butter, and this is one combination you wouldn’t want to miss out on trying.
If you want to keep it simple but still want to bring in some flavor variation, a pinch of cinnamon powder or pumpkin pie spice can work the magic and can transform those peanut butter oat bars into a fall-ready snack.
Peanut butter also tastes great with caramel - you can add some caramel nibs into the mixture or drizzle some caramel sauce on the top of each oat bar before you refrigerate it.
To increase the nutritive value of these bars, you can also add some dried berries (cranberries are best) or throw in some de-seeded Medjool dates or even add some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds.
And of course, you can never go wrong with some nuts - raisins, chopped almonds, walnuts, and pecans all make for excellent additions to your oat bars mixture.

Can I Use Chunky Peanut Butter Instead?

While this recipe calls for the use of creamy peanut butter, you can totally opt for the chunky variety too, if that’s what you prefer. In fact, depending on your taste, you could even use almond butter or cashew butter.
If you’re not so keen on using nut butter, you could substitute with any seed butter of your choice too.

What Can I Use Instead of Rolled Oats?

Rolled oats are great because they have the perfect texture and size you’d want for this recipe. You could also use quick oats as an alternative.
In addition to the oats, you can also add some whole wheat flour into the mixture to make it more healthy.

How to Store the Peanut Butter Oat Bars

Ready with your batch of oat bars? You can transfer them to an airtight container before you refrigerate them where they can last for up to 10 days, or wrap them individually in parchment paper and then stack them in your container. This extra step is actually worth it because it allows you to conveniently carry the bars along for when you need a snack on the go. If you want to store these bars for longer, you can actually just pop them into a Ziploc bag and put them into the freezer, where they can stay good for up to 3 months.

Tips & Tricks to Get the Recipe Right

Think you’re all ready to give this easy recipe a shot? Wait up. You might want to keep these little tips and tricks in mind to take those peanut butter oat bars up a notch.

This recipe calls for the use of honey as a sweetener, but if you’re looking for an alternative, agave syrup or maple syrup can be good options too.
To enhance the flavor of these healthy bars, you can also add a bit of vanilla extract into the mixture. You might also want to follow this up with a pinch of sea salt to help balance out the sweetness of the oat bars.
Before you transfer the mixture to the mold, you can line it with some parchment paper. This will help make the oat bars easier to remove.
When cooking the oats with peanut butter and honey, make sure you use a heavy-bottomed pan, and cook the mixture on medium to low heat to keep it from burning.
Avoid overcooking the oat mixture- doing that can actually ruin the texture and flavor of the oat bars, and can also make them crumbly and more likely to fall apart, even after refrigeration.
If you have a little extra time, you can actually turn these oat bars into layered oat bars by first spreading a thin layer of the mixture, then a thin layer of melted chocolate mixed with peanut butter, followed by another layer of the oat bars mixture and let it all set. These can look really fancy and are an excellent sweet treat to enjoy when you’re craving one, but still want to keep it healthy.
Depending on the number of ingredients you add into the mixture, you might need to increase the amount of peanut butter or honey you add, mainly to make the mixture sticky enough for you to be able to shape it and cut it into bars.

Loved making these easy and healthy snack bars? On the hunt for some more such recipes? Here are a few good options to try out.

Recipe

Yield: 20 Squares