Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
I have been really into the easy bar cookies recently. Between making a few meals for friends in our church, and taking treats to work for coworkers’ birthdays, the quick and easy recipes have been a big help. (Note: if you’re looking for other ones try these chewy peanut butter brownies and these marble blondies). These oatmeal chocolate chip bars are no exception. They are so fast to throw together, and the bars are delicious. They are thick and chewy and taste like a traditional oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but with half the work. I took these to work last week and everyone loved them. Normally there is a longer lead time between when I make a recipe and when I post it on the blog, but these were so good that I had people requesting that I post them right away! So here you go – next time you need cookies in a hurry, give this recipe a try. 🙂
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars
Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups quick-cooking or old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and beat just until combined. Fold in the oats and chocolate chips. Spread in a rimmed 10x15 baking pan, using a spatula or your hands to press into place. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool, but cut the bars while they are still somewhat warm, as a knife will go through them more easily.
*Note: I halved this recipe and baked it in a square 9x9 pan and it turned out perfectly. I think you could do a 9x13 pan with the full recipe, they will just be very thick (which isn't a bad thing!) and you will have to increase the baking time. I haven't tried these in the 10x15 pan so I can't say for sure how thick they turn out.
from the Penzeys Spice Catalog
Welcome! I'm Megan and it's my hope that here you'll find food that has been made with love and recipes that are shared with joy. Thanks for stopping by! 
These sound fabulous. Like a bigger, better, oatmeal chocolate chip cookie!
mmmm these look so gooey and delicious.
Yum!! These look so gooey and chocolatey!
These look yummy. I am not a chocolate chip person, but I could sure go for nuts in these.
I love bars so much that I almost never wait for them to cool to slice. I need to learn some patiences.
yay!! so glad you posted the recipe already!! these were so yummy and I can’t wait to make them 🙂
Oh, these look amazing! I love having easy recipes on hand for events that come up!
Ooh, these sound delicious! I love bar cookies.
I love bar cookies and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my FAVE. Pretty photos too Megan. 🙂
These look so gooey I can hardly stand it!
mmm, i love easy bar cookies! this version sounds fantastic. 🙂
I’m addicted to bars too…and I’m so happy to see oatmeal paired with chocolate chips as opposed to raisins!
Just made these last night and they were delicious!! My husband even ate one for breakfast claiming it was completely appropriate as it was an “oatmeal bar”. 🙂
So glad you liked these! I have to be honest and tell you I ate one for breakfast too… 🙂
I’m a sucker for dessert bars and these sound phenomenal! I love the idea of using oatmeal I bet that give them great texture!
these were stellar and easy oh and quick!
So glad you liked them! 🙂
Love the simplicity of these bars, we made them the other night when we were craving something sinful. It kept us from going to Mr. Field’s for cookies. Thanks for sharing!
Loved this recipes! The bars came out perfect, even though I didn’t quite have enough oatmeal. I will be bookmarking this recipe for sure! THanks!
So glad you liked it! 🙂
I just made these bars and they are delicious and moist! I slightly changed the recipe though using 1/2 cup of dark chocolate, 1/2 cup of dried cranberries, and 1/2 cup of coconut since I had these leftovers on hand. It turned out so good!
Your version sounds wonderful! Glad you liked them 🙂
I made these today – fabulous!!!! I went a little heavy on the chocolate chips but how can you go wrong with more chocolate. Big hit with the kids and huge hit with my husband. I will be making these again. Thanks for the great recipe.
So glad you liked them! I agree, too many chocolate chips is not possible 🙂
Made these tonight. Very good – I added 3/4 cup of toasted walnuts. Thanks! Bringing them to the office to share so I dont eat them all!
Glad you liked them! And I always end up taking cookies to work too -too dangerous otherwise 🙂
These are the most delicious chocolate chip oatmeal bars that I’ve ever tasted! Thanks for sharing your recipe:)
I’m so glad you liked them! 🙂
I made these tonight and it was delicious. I made half the recipe in 8 x 8. Thanks!
Oh my goodness these are TO DIE FOR! I am no expert baker so I always get a little nervous when making things from scratch but these turned out AHHHHHHMAZINGLY!! Love love looooove 🙂 The second time ’round I added a couple of ripe bananas I had lying around and they turned out amazing as well!! Have to say these are my new favorite 🙂
I just made these delicious bars, thank you for the recipe, I love them. I actually made them with white chocolate chips, oh so good! I also baked them in a 9×13 pan for 25 minutes and they came out perfect!
I made these last night for a casual night on the patio with friends. Everyone RAVED about the bars and I will be making them again soon!!
Thanks girl!!
Ps – I made them in a glass 10×15 dish and 20 minutes was perfect! I also added about 1 t cinnamon for added flavor… Yum!! 🙂
Hello!
This recipe looked delicious so I tried making them last night. They turned out dry and crumbly…how do I get them to be chewy? This always happens to me when I make chocolate chip cookies too :(. I need help! What am I doing wrong?
Thanks!
Tracey
I was excited to try these bars but I made the mistake of printing the recipe. I assumed that only the recipe would print, but I got all 15 pages of comments with it. My printer is in a different room so I didn’t realized until I wasted all that paper and ink. Things went down from there. I kept waiting for the bars to turn “golden brown” and they never did. I cooked them just over 20 minutes in the right sized pan, but they are not gooey at all. They are dry, nothing like the picture. Very disappointing. I usually make chocolate chip oatmeal bars out of Dunkin Hines cookie mix, but I wanted something homemade. Wish I’d stuck with the mix. They are easier and better.
I’m sorry this recipe didn’t turn out well for you. To print the recipe, just hit the little print icon next to the recipe title at the bottom of the post. That will print just the recipe and nothing else. Unfortunately without being with you in the kitchen I can’t really know what went wrong in the recipe, but I”m sorry they didn’t turn out as you hoped. They do have a lot of other positive reviews, so it might be worth trying again? But I totally understand if you want to stick to your tried and true mix. 🙂
I’ve made these half a dozen times now for my husband and he LOVES THEM, both in the original version and a tweaked breakfast bar version (cut the sugars by 25%, add crushed walnuts and dried cranberries). Did I say he loves them? He loves them! Thanks Megan!
These are seriously off the hook! Thanks you so much!
As for the lady who responded to your oatmeal choc chip bars, she seriously needs to first of all go and have some private tuitoring in cooking because she evidently didn’t make them right cuz they turned out for me and umpteen other people. They were DELISCIOUS !!!!!! Thanks megan for a great cookie bar.:-)
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Perfect! Made them for a memorial service tomorrow. I would much rather make bars than cookies….not so many trips to the oven….yep, lazy cook. Will need to make these for my family.
I made these tonight for a Super Bowl gathering..they were the best part of the evening! ; ) Mine turned out well, were eaten up. I sprayed a 9×13 glass dish…. used the full bag of chips and added walnut pieces too. Also 2 jumbo eggs helps them to be softer.
I wonder if others turned out crumbly if using medium eggs or if butter was not softened, or melting it instead I know can change the texture.
Trying these today… I plan on adding a touch of cinnamon also…. Will let everyone know how they turn out…!
Wonderful cookies except had to adjust the baking time… 20 minutes was not nearly enough time … However the directions do say bake for 20 OR until browned…. So that’s what I watched for….. And they are absolutely delicious. I added a touch of cinnamon and I think next time I will even had a cup of chopped nuts along with the chocolate chips.!! Finally a great recipe for old fashioned bar cookies.!!!!!!! We are having some with our coffee this morning.!!!!! Wonderful.!!!!
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I only have one stick of butter sitting out and am wondering if I can sub the other half cup with something? Applesauce, coconut oil, anything…I want to make them and have a soft and chewy delish desert for tomorrow. Suggestions? Thanks in advance!
So I wanted to reply to my last post. I winged it and used 1/2 c applesauce in place of 1 of the sticks of butter. I baked them in a 10×15 pan as suggested, I mixed very minimal trying to get the absolute best texture. At 20 minutes they were still pudding like in the middle. Five minutes later I pulled them out so as not to overbake since the edges were browning. After 20 minutes I tried cutting into these and they are crumbly and nothing sticks together. Its literally just a pile of crumbs trying to get a ‘bar’ out of the pan. Very bad. The only other thing I can think is that I use organic butter which tends to not cream as well as traditional butter. It leaves the batter full of butter bits VS blending. Bummer ;(
Thanks for sharing!
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HI – I just made these today. Used a 9×13 pan, baked 25 min. They came out great. Way better than oatmeal cookies…. I will definitely be making them again.
Thanks so much…..
i have made these bars easily 50 times now. Not kidding. Sometimes once a week! The kids and their friends request these for snacks all the time. The teachers at my kids’ school can’t wait for me to bring these in for events. FYI, For my oven, 18 minutes is the perfect time. I let them cool about 10 minutes before turning them out on a large cutting board and then cut into squares before they completely cool. After cooling, I freeze them in baggies (or they would disappear the same day).
Doubled the recipe and made in 10″x15″ pan. No other changes. They were delish and hubby loved them. Took them out of the oven at 10pm and 1/3 of pan was gone by 12midnite. Wonderful recipe, Megan!!!