Your best oatmeal bar recipe, please
October 24, 2013 1:21 PM   Subscribe

I know there are tons of recipes out there, but I’m looking for tried-and-true oatmeal bars. Specifications inside.

The bars should be:

- nut-free
- soft, but not crumbly/messy
- freezable

Healthy additions/interesting flavours are a bonus. These will be eaten by adults as well as children (ages 9 and 10).

Please only share recipes that you have actually tried. Thank you!
posted by yawper to Food & Drink (6 answers total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: Sorry - one thing I should have clarified: I'm looking for bars that can be eaten as breakfast/snack, not dessert. So nothing super sweet/cakey.
posted by yawper at 1:23 PM on October 24, 2013


Best answer: I don't have a recipe, but a suggestion for any recipe you DO wind up using: 1. Use old-fashioned oats, NOT the instant or quick kind, and, 2. Toast yer oats in a pan with a wad o' butter before you employ them in the recipe - a quick butter-toasting elevates the humble oat from a boring grain to a glorious explosion of hearty goodness.
posted by julthumbscrew at 1:37 PM on October 24, 2013


Best answer: This Oatmeal Breakfast Clafoutis from Chocolate & Zucchini is really great and incredibly flexible. I love it with pecans and dried cherries.
posted by punchtothehead at 1:48 PM on October 24, 2013 [1 favorite]


Best answer: ooh me me! I make not-too-sweet oat bars and then freeze them for my breakfast!

Here is what I put in

roughly 2 mugfuls of oats, sometimes more
one roast squash, or half a roast pumpkin*
2 mugfuls of whatever seeds or dried fruit floats your boat
1 tablespoonful of nut butter
pinch of salt
a good squeeze of honey or maple syrup
I also sometimes add spirulina powder

Mix it up, spread on a tray lined with greaseproof paper, bake til firm. The great thing about these is the squash/pumpkin, which keeps them moist and filling without adding wheaty flour or too much sweetness.

pro-tip: not getting hung up on quantities. if the mixture seems too sloppy, add more oats. if it looks a bit sparse, add more fruit/seeds/nuts. Speaking of which, I generally chuck in whatever I have, but dried apricot and walnut works well, so does date and sunflower seed.

These things freeze beautifully. When you take one out, put it in a paper bag and take it to work in your pocket. It will have thawed by the time you get there!


*easy to do - cut the thing in half, put the halves flesh-side down in a baking tray with half a cm of water in it, bake in the oven til the flesh is soft
posted by greenish at 3:10 PM on October 24, 2013 [14 favorites]


Response by poster: Hmm. I guess oatmeal bars are not too popular, eh? Thanks to those who contributed!
posted by yawper at 1:05 PM on October 25, 2013


So, not an oatmeal bar, but I've made "breakfast cookies" like this one from King Arthur Flour.

Why no nuts? Is it a nuts texture thing for the kids? Or an allergy? If its a texture thing, are nut butters going to work? They are pretty great in getting a chewy thing going on. If it's an allergy, coconut oil plus some whey protein (chocolate flavor?) could be an approximate substitute. Or soy/seed butter.

Either way, all of these things are pretty flexible and a chewy texture is going to be a combo of some kind of liquid sugar (honey, maple, corn syrup), and some fat.
posted by fontophilic at 5:50 PM on October 26, 2013


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