Recipe – Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars

Minhan has always been a fan of the baking trio: peanut butter, oats, and chocolate. Actually, when we first started dating, she was the baker. She baked these delicious oatmeal cookies and I kid you not, I ate at least 6 huge cookies every day. She made these before we got health-conscious about our ingredients, so they ended up doing a number on me. Now that Booker is here, Minhan has been asking for more oatmeal-based baked goods, so I figure I’d try to recreate her magical cookies, but in a healthier and still tasty way! Here is how you make my peanut butter oatmeal bars.

The Dry Ingredients

As always, mix the dry ingredients in a separate container from the wet ingredients. This part is really straight forward! Just mix the flour, cinnamon, salt, oats, raisins, and chocolate chips together. I suggest breaking up any raisins that have clumped together. After mixing the raisins with the rest of the dry ingredients, especially the flour, they shouldn’t clump again.

The Wet Ingredients

I used a stand mixer to mix the wet ingredients, but this can be done by hand as well. When selecting peanut butter, make sure that roasted peanuts is the only ingredient. Any additives like butter, sugar, milk, etc. (sorry Skippy) not only alters the texture of the peanut butter, but the nutritional quality as well. Also, I suggest using farm fresh eggs whenever you can. They have better nutrition and give a better bake.

After mixing the wet ingredients, toss in half of the dry ingredients. Mix until homogeneous, then add the rest of the dry ingredients and turn the batter on a lined 9″x13″ baking sheet. I used a rolling pin to smooth out the batter, which should only rise to about 1cm.

The Bake

After baking at 375°F for 10min, this is what the peanut butter oatmeal bars looks like:

It looks a little plain for my taste, so I decided to drizzle a bit of dark chocolate on top. To do this, I melted some dark chocolate chips with a little bit of almond milk. Depending on how you want to decorate and what consistency you like, you can adjust the ratio of chocolate:milk accordingly.

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For this very abstract design, I used a fork. I scooped up some of the melted chocolate and swirled the fork about a centimeter above the bars to get this design. I’m not that artsy, so don’t judge me!

Finishing Touches

I used a pizza wheel and made 32 bars (4×8).

And here are the finished peanut butter oatmeal bars! They are very rich in peanut butter flavor and texture, just the way Minhan likes it!

Materials:

• 225g peanut butter (no other ingredients other than roasted peanuts)
• 125g maple syrup (I use dark Grade A)
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1 large farm fresh egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 100g oats (not quick)
• 50g raisins
• 50g dark chocolate chips

Methods:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. In one bowl, mix the dry ingredients: whole wheat pastry flour, ground cinnamon, salt, oats, raisins, and dark chocolate chips.
3. In a mixing bowl fitted for a stand mixer, combine the wet ingredients: peanut butter, maple syrup, almond milk, egg, and vanilla extract. Tip: if you really want to bring out the nutty flavor, combine the peanut butter and maple syrup in a pot and heat it on a stove for 5min on medium-high before adding it to the mixing bowl.
4. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture.
5. Line a 9″x13″ baking sheet with either parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Pour the batter onto the baking sheet and use a rolling pin to spread the batter. It should be about 1cm thick.
6. Bake at 375°F for 10min and cool.
7. For the drizzle, melt some dark chocolate with a little bit of almond milk and go crazy decorating! To cut the bars, I suggest using a pizza wheel.

As always, comments, questions, and feedback are always welcome!