No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bars! This delicious cookie recipe comes together in 10 minutes & is gluten-free & vegan-friendly! These are seriously the BEST No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Bars and they make such a fabulous afternoon snack. They combine the ever popular chocolate and peanut butter, which I just cannot resist, and they’re actually pretty healthy! My 4 year old twins made these with very little help from me, so you know they really are easy! These No Bake Chocolate Oat Bars will give you a big dose of peanut butter, oats, and almonds, for an energy packed breakfast bar recipe. It’s a quick and simple recipe that you can make the night before, so you have them ready to go for breakfast. But with half a cup of butter and TWO full cups of refined sugar packed into traditional no bake bar recipes, they’re really not even close! These clean chocolate oatmeal no bake bars offer the perfect healthy alternative: No-bake Chocolate  Oatmeal Cookies and I have a bit of a special relationship. I love how easy they are to make, and how rich the chocolate and peanut flavors can be. A “lightened up” version of those classic chocolate oatmeal no bake bars everyone loves so much:

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups quick cooking oats
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter

Directions

  1. Grease a 9×9 inch square pan.
  2. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Mix in the oats. Cook over low heat 2 to 3 minutes, or until ingredients are well blended. Press half of mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Reserve the other half for topping.
  3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Pour the chocolate mixture over the crust in the pan, and spread evenly with a knife or the back of a spoon.
  4. Crumble the remaining oat mixture over the chocolate layer, pressing in gently. Cover, and refrigerate 2 to 3 hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature before cutting into bars.

Source: allrecipes.com