Small-batch Stuffed Oat Bars

5 from 1 vote

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Keyword: easy recipes, gluten-free, low sugar, nut butter, oat bars, oat bites, oatmeal, plant-based, small-batch, stuffed, vegan

Servings: bars

Calories: 115kcal

1 cup oats (80 g) quick or rolled oats
2 tbsp nut/seed butter (32 g)
1/4 cup maple syrup (84 g) sub 1/2 mashed banana (60 g) for no-added-sugar version, make sure it's ripe
pinch of salt

2 tbsp nut/seed butter (32 g) I love using (chocolate) sun butter or even nutella

(Optional) Start by processing your oats until meal like. Leave as much texture as you prefer. The more texture you leave the chewier your bars will be.
In a medium bowl add nut butter, maple syrup, a pinch of salt, and microwave 20 sec, mix it up.
Stir in your oats, making a bar dough. (Optional) let rest for 10 minutes to thicken (makes it a bit easier to handle).
On a piece of parchment paper, make a rectange of the bar dough. Cut the rectangle in two halves and smear your filling on one side (if your nut butter is not spreadable, warm in the microwave first).
Fold over with parchment and top with the other side, gently pressing down.
Slice into 8 (don't worry if things gets messy and squished a little, this makes it all the better) and place the pieces on a cookie sheet.
Bake 15-20 minutes, less for soft-baked, more for slightly crunchy bars. I prefer 20 minutes.
Let your bars cool and enjoy!

I made the pictured bars with quick oats and skipped the processing step. Processing your oats until meal-like first will produce less chewy bars. If you don't have a food processor you can also try using 3 tbsp (20 g) oat/regular flour and about 3/4 cup (60 g) oats instead of the 1 cup of oats and you should get the same less chewy without a food processor. I truly love these bars with all kinds of oat-y textures!
The bars are snack-sized. For breakfast-sized bars, slice into 4 and bake the same.
If you want to make a chocolate filling from scratch (instead of using like, nutella) microwave together 1 tbsp nut/seed butter and 1 tbsp chocolate chips 30 sec at a time and stir until all chocolate melts and use this as your filling.
I love the bars but if you would like to make a no-added-sugar breakfast item, just sub the maple syrup for 1/4 cup mashed banana which is about 1/2 a large banana. Make sure it's ripe! You can add additional natural sweetness by adding 1/4 tsp or so cinnamon. It's so good.