A Nature Valley copycat recipe: soft-baked Oatmeal Bars! These peanut butter flavored bars are thick, chewy, and dotted with peanut butter baking chips. These naturally gluten-free bars are made with better-for-you ingredients.
Try our other gluten-free treats: Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cake, Healthy Chocolate Cookies, or Blueberry Oatmeal Bars.
The Best Oatmeal Bars
On a recent road trip, we tried Nature Valley’s® Peanut Butter Oatmeal Squares. The kids and I loved how soft they were, but I didn’t love the ingredients used. So, when we got home, I decided to make my own version of oatmeal bars.
These homemade oatmeal bars are soft and chewy. They taste a lot like peanut butter cookies mixed with oatmeal. I use natural sweetener like honey, plus good ingredients like peanut butter, oats, and oat flour. The peanut butter chips have some sugar, but you can switch them with dark chocolate to make the bars more nutritious.
Oatmeal Bars Ingredients
- Peanut Butter: This provides the main flavor, structure, and is filling due to its protein content.
- Honey: Naturally sweetens the bars and is rich in antioxidants.
- Light Brown Sugar: Adds a bit more sweetness, used minimally (only 1/4 cup).
- Egg: Stabilizes the batter, adds flavor and protein.
- Vanilla Extract: Gives a subtle flavor enhancement.
- Baking Soda: Prevents the bars from being too dense.
- Oats and Oat Flour: These form the base of your oatmeal bars, providing structure and chewiness. You can make oat flour from these same oats.
- Peanut Butter Chips: They add a fun element, but you can replace them with nuts or dark chocolate chips for a healthier option.
Quick Tip
Line the pan with parchment paper and leave an overhang for easy removal. These oatmeal bars stick to the pan and be nearly impossible to pull out without the parchment paper.
How To Make Oatmeal Bars
- Prep: Preheat your oven and line an 8×8-inch baking pan with parchment paper.
- Mix: In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, honey, brown sugar, an egg, vanilla extract, baking soda, salt, old-fashioned oats, and oat flour. Beat until smooth. Then, fold in the peanut butter chips.
- Bake: Pour the batter into the pan and smooth it out. Bake.
- Cut and Serve: Let the oatmeal bars cool in the pan, then cut them into squares.
More Easy Snack Recipes
Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup oat flour (See Note 2)
- 1 cup peanut butter chips
- Optional: 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
Instructions
- PREP: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8x8-inch pan with parchment paper, leaving an overhang for easy removal, and set aside.
- BARS: Combine all the ingredients except the peanut butter chips in a large bowl. Beat with a hand mixer until smooth. Add in the peanut butter chips and fold with a spatula to combine.
- BAKE: Transfer batter to the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. They may look a bit underdone or gooey in the center, but as long as they don't jiggle at all, they are done. These bars continue to set up and firm as they cool.
- CUT AND SERVE: Remove bars from the oven and let cool completely in the pan. Use the parchment paper overhang to pull out the bars and cut into 12 squares with a sharp knife.
- OPTIONAL: (This is for the peanut butter fanatics!) Once bars are cut into squares, place 1/4 cup of peanut butter in a small resealable bag. Cut off a tiny corner tip of the bag and pipe the peanut butter on the top of the bars.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These are one of the best tasting “healthy” things I have ever baked! I’ve never actually had the nature valley bars, but I don’t think I need to anymore. I can’t believe there’s only 1/4 cup of sugar in the whole thing! Also, if it’s of interest to anyone, I used regular whole wheat flour and dark chocolate chips and it worked great!!
Yay! I am so glad you tried and liked these!! Thanks for your sweet comment 🙂
I have been looking for a recipe similar to the Nature Valley forever! So glad I stumbled upon yours! My husband prefers the blueberry bars, do you have any tips on how to substitute the peanut butter for blueberry instead?
Hello Chelsea! While searching for a copycat recipe of the Nature Valley oatmeal squares, I stumbled upon your blog and I’m impressed with everything I’ve viewed, like your homemade cookie dough bites for the cereal and the no bake cookies. I’m definitely going to make this recipe. I’m preparing myself for it, I just grinded up oats in my sister’s magic bullet and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I just made oat flour! I didn’t think I could grind up oats in the magic bullet,since the texture is so soft but I did. I bought some silk milk today. It’s a mixture of almond and coconut milk. I’ll be using this for the milk part.Tomorrow morning, I’m going out to buy the rest of the ingredients I don’t have. I’m already in love with your site Chelsea! Thank you for all the recipes. I have a family reunion next weekend and I’m sure I could make a potluck dish. Have a great day!
Hi Ashley!! Thanks so much for your sweet comment – that means a lot to me 🙂 Isn’t making oat flour the coolest thing ever? I love watching them go from oats to flour in seconds!! Thanks again SO much and sorry for the delayed response! I hope you were able to try these and liked them 🙂 Have a good one!
any ideas on how to make the cinnamon brown sugar ones? We’re not huge peanut butter fans, but LOVE the other ones.
I actually have a copycat recipe for those too! Here’s the link: https://chelseasmessyapron.com/nature-valley-copycat-cinnamon-brown-sugar-soft-baked-oatmeal-squares/
Omg!They looks so good!!!!!I am craving now!
Thanks for sharing !
These are great! Made the first batch exactly like the recipe and they came out great. next batch I changes one tbsp of brown sugar for one tbsp of jam (used plum jam but i think any jam will work well. 1/4 cup = 4 tbsp).
Thanks!
OOO that sounds delicious!!! 🙂
I just made this recipe, and it performed amazingly in nearly all aspects! The only thing I didn’t like was that it had a tendency of sticking to the roof of my mouth as I chewed it, but that’s an unimportant aspect.
My family and I have been wondering if the number of failed trials was what you actually had to go through to create this recipe (I think it is because you said ‘seriously’ and because of the specificity of the number of trials and peanut butter jars, but my family says you could be exaggerating).
I’m going to replace the peanut butter chips with dark chocolate chips the next time I make this recipe to see how it compares. Thanks for creating and sharing this recipe; I love replacing foods my family buys with homemade alternatives :).
Oh that is so good to hear! Thank you for taking the time to comment and leave a review 🙂
Haha!!! I am definitely an exaggerater 🙂 I probably had in reality about 6-8 fails before I was happy with the bars! I’d love to hear how it is with the dark chocolate chips – that sounds fantastic and is definitely healthier than peanut butter chips. Thanks again for your comment Sam!
What a delightful surprise to Google NV Copycat Soft Oatmeal Squares and find your recipe. Looks simple enough, however I am seeking the Cinnamon version of these soft squares. Any chance on modifying the recipe to omit peanut butter?
Thank you, Chelsea, for your forthcoming response.
D.
Thanks Deneen! I haven’t tried any versions without peanut butter so I’m not quite sure what to recommend! I’d love to experiment and work out a recipe that copycats the cinnamon one. I will work on a recipe this week and keep you updated! Thanks for your comment!
Hey Deneen, I just wanted to let you know, thanks to your comment I’ve been busy working on a new recipe! Here is a cinnamon and brown sugar copycat: https://chelseasmessyapron.com/nature-valley-copycat-cinnamon-brown-sugar-soft-baked-oatmeal-squares/
Enjoy!
Oh my gosh thank you. I never thought a recipe would actually come up when I googled it! After buying another too-expensive box, I need this recipe. Pinned, hopefully making this week!
Hi Chelsea! I found your recipe on Pinterest, and because I am a peanut butter fanatic, I was so excited to try it. I’m an expat living overseas, and it isn’t always easy finding specific ingredients, so I had to modify the recipe a little, but it didn’t matter because they turned out great! I used regular whole wheat flour instead of the white whole wheat, subbed dark chocolate chunks for the peanut butter chips, used coconut palm sugar I purchased on a recent trip to Thailand in place of the brown sugar, and added some ground flax seed. They were not overly sweet, which I actually prefer. I am guessing the peanut butter chips probably add more sweetness than dark chocolate. These will make a great pre-workout snack for me, and my husband who usually turns his nose up at anything that looks remotely healthy enjoyed them as well. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe!
This is SO good to hear Kristy! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment and letting readers know the great changes you made! Thanks again and have a wonderful weekend 🙂