Soft, chocolatey, and absolutely delicious - these Chocolate Banana Oat Bars are made with wholesome ingredients and make for the perfect portable snack, breakfast or healthy treat! Made with just 6 ingredients, these easy-peasy bars are dairy-free, kid-friendly and can be gluten-free as well. These bars have all the flavors of banana bread but are lower in sugar, fat and higher in fiber and protein. You can’t get much better than that! So if you love that chocolate-banana combo like us, you need to try these. Let’s get baking!

These Banana Oat Bars are:

• Super quick and easy to make
• dairy-free
• Soft-baked and most
• Filled with whole and healthful ingredients
• Kid-friendly
• Can be adapted to be gluten-free and vegan
• Freezer-friendly
• Chocolately, chocolatey, chocolatey!

What You Need

• Bananas. 2 large bananas are equivalent to 1 cup of mashed banana. For baked goods like these bars, it’s always better if you use ripe or even overripe bananas. Because bananas act as the sweetener in this recipe, the more ripe the bananas, the sweeter these bars will be. 
• Rolled or Quick Oats. Depending on your preference, you can use either old-fashioned rolled oats or quick oats in this recipe. If you prefer a chewier texture, use rolled oats, but if you like a softer, delicate texture quick oats are better. If you are gluten-free, double check to ensure that your oats are certified gluten-free.
• Eggs. This recipe calls for two large eggs. Eggs provide structure to these bars, keeping everything together. If you prefer not to use eggs, substitute them for applesauce or even a “flax egg”.
• Cacao powder. Cacao powder gives these bars an extra chocolatey flavor.
• Baking powder. Baking powder adds lift.
• Chocolate chips. If you want to make these bars vegan, you can skip the chocolate or use dairy-free chocolate chips instead. You can also skip the chocolate chips or replace them with peanut butter chips, chopped nuts, or raisins.
• Chopped hazelnuts. Adding nuts adds a nice crunch to the bars and also elevates the protein content. You can even roast them beforehand to give the bars extra crunch and flavour. 

How To Make Banana Oat Bars

As far as baking goes, this recipe couldn’t be easier to make! Here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl mash the bananas with the back of a fork.
3. Add oats, eggs, cacao powder, baking powder and chocolate chips. Stir to combine.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
6. Cool completely, slice into 9 squares and drizzle with honey or melted peanut butter if desired. Enjoy!

Variations

There are so many other variations of these bars that you can make. Here are a few suggestions:

• Gluten-free. If you wish to make this recipe gluten-free, it’s super easy! Just use gluten-free oats!
• Vegan. To make the recipe vegan, swap applesauce for the eggs and make sure you are using dairy-free vegan chocolate chips.
• Extra flavors. If you want, add 1 tsp of ground cinnamon or 1 tsp of vanilla extract to make them THAT much better.
• Top it up! Instead of just adding chopped hazelnuts as a topping you can also add chopped raisins or cranberries for extra colour.
• Holiday version. Nothing says holiday baking like pumpkin. Swap the mashed bananas for pumpkin puree to make a delicious holiday pumpkin treat!

How To Store

These bars are freezer-friendly. Just make sure they are completely cooled and already sliced before putting them in the freezer. They will keep for 2-3 months.