OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP BARS

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars are soft, chewy and easy to make when you don’t have time to scoop individual cookies! This delicious chocolate chip cookie bar recipe is filled with oats and chocolate chips and comes together quickly.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars are made quite often at my house because they are just so easy to make. Almost too easy. 😳 It’s like making one giant cookie! Which is never a bad idea, right?! I love making cookies, but sometimes I just don’t have the time to scoop and bake several cookie sheets worth of cookies. Making cookie bars is a great way to enjoy cookies without having to take the time to make lots of individual cookies.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars

These delicious cookie bars are made with the same basic ingredients you can find in Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Butter, sugar, flour, eggs, oats…all common pantry ingredients. The main difference is that you just spread all the dough into a 9X13 pan and bake it all at once. Cool, slice into bars and serve!

Ingredients in Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars

Flour – All-purpose flour works best in most cookie recipes.

Baking soda – This acts as the leavening agent in the cookies, so don’t leave it out! For best results, make sure it isn’t old or expired.

Salt – Just a little bit of salt will help all of the other flavors to pop.

Oats – You can use old-fashioned or quick oats. I actually really like to do about half and half. If you use all quick oats, the bars will be a little more dense. If you use old-fashioned oats, the bars will be a bit chewier.

Butter – I usually use salted butter in cookies, but you can use unsalted if you prefer. I don’t change the salt measurement when I use unsalted or salted butter and I can’t really tell the difference!

Sugars – You will need 1 cup of sugar total. I usually do a half cup of each, but you can do just one or the other. All brown sugar will make the cookie bars a little bit more rich and flavorful, but you can just use granulated sugar if you’d like.

Egg – A large sized egg will help bind everything together.

Vanilla extract – The higher the quality of the vanilla, the better!

Chocolate chips – I almost always use semi-sweet chocolate chips for this recipe, but you can swap them out with whatever kind of chocolate chips you’d like. Butterscotch chips are amazing in this recipe! Or you can leave them out altogether. Or swap them with raisins. 😉

How to make Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars

Preheat oven to 375°. Mix all the dry ingredients together. Beat the butter, sugars, egg and vanilla extract together until creamy.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and mix until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Place the dough into a greased 9X13 pan and spread until evenly distributed throughout the entire pan. I think it’s easiest to use your fingers for this!

A few extra chocolate chips can be scattered over the oatmeal bars just before baking if you’d like more visible chocolate chips on the top.

Bake the cookie bars for 18-20 minutes, or just until they begin to turn a light golden brown on top. Let them cool and then slice and serve. Or eat them warm like I do – they fall apart a little bit but they are so yummy!

Tips for making the best cookie bars

• Don’t melt the butter! Just soften it to room temperature before adding to the mixture.
• Spend a little extra time when you mix the butter and sugars. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of the cookies.
• Preheat the oven. This will help your cookie bars turn out right every time!
• Don’t over bake them – when I take mine out of the oven, they still look slightly under baked in the middle but they will continue to bake in the pan for a couple more minutes so that’s ok!

What kind of oats are best in Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars?

You can use quick oats or old-fashioned oats in your cookies- it really comes down to a personal preference. I actually like to do a combination – half quick oats and half old-fashioned, but it’s totally up to you and what type of oats you have in your pantry! If you use all quick oats, the cookie bars will end up being a little bit more dense and a little bit puffier.

I like the texture of old-fashioned oats because it make the cookie bars a little bit chewier (and also like I am eating real oatmeal which makes it easier for me to justify eating a few of these cookie bars for breakfast!).

How do you soften butter to room temperature?

The best way to soften butter is to set it out for a few hours before you make your cookies. Since most of us (or maybe just me!) aren’t that prepared or don’t think that far in advance, there are a few tricks to softening butter perfectly in just a matter of minutes.

My favorite way to soften butter is in the microwave. It’s definitely fast, but you do have to be very careful not to melt it. Just put the whole stick of butter in the microwave (as long as it isn’t wrapped in foil!) and microwave for about 6-7 seconds. If the butter is still really cold, try another 5-7 seconds and check it again. You may need a few intervals, and if the butter is starting to feel soft, you can shorten the final interval to just a few seconds to make sure it doesn’t start melting.

I actually prefer to use the defrost setting on my microwave – I don’t know exactly what that mode does differently, and it takes a little bit longer (closer to 30 seconds), but it seems to be easier to get the butter to soften without melting.

How to store Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars?

Store these oatmeal bars in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

These oatmeal bars are suitable for freezing.  Make sure to cool them completely before slicing and placing in an airtight container. Freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months.  Defrost at room temperature before eating.

Love cookie bars as much as we do? Here are some of our favorite cookie bar recipes:

• S’mores Cookie Bars
• Peanut Butter Cookie Bars
• Butterfinger Cookie Bars
• Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
• Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars
• Tagalong Cookie Bars
• Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars
• Cherry Almond Cookie Bars
• Fudgy Oatmeal Cookie Bars
• Sugar Cookie Bars
• No Bake Cookie Bars
• Swiss Miss Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bars are soft, chewy and easy to make when you don’t have time to scoop individual cookies! This delicious chocolate chip cookie bar recipe is filled with oats and chocolate chips and comes together quickly.

Little Baby B is 6 months old! How did that happen?! She absolutely loves food! No surprise there – the cheeks are a dead giveaway! She isn’t picky – she will eat pretty much anything, but she absolutely LOVES avocados and bananas. She can eat a whole avocado in one sitting and she can polish off a whole banana pretty quickly too. Her latest trick is to chomp down on the spoon while I’m feeding her – she’s pretty talented already!