These peanut butter banana oat bars are naturally gluten-free and feature a soft and chewy granola bar base with lots of banana + peanut butter flavor and generous drizzles of melted chocolate on top.

Your grab and go breakfast game just got a major upgrade! In the direction of peanut butter, banana, and chocolate which we all know is a top-tier trio in breakfast land.

These bars definitely aren’t just breakfast food though. They also serve as a pretty dang good mid-afternoon snack and even a dessert if you truly want them to be.

Trust me, you want them in every corner of your life.

Keeping things super simple in the prep department today! Only a handful of ingredients and one bowl needed to pull off these little gems. Just be warned, you may feel inclined to bake them all the time given these facts.

Don’t worry, you’ll hear zero complaints from anyone.

These Oat Bars feature…

A soft and chewy texture
Lots of banana flavor and creamy peanut butter
Rich drizzles of melted chocolate on top
Ready in minutes in only one bowl and gluten-free

Making the Oat Bars

(scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe)

Ingredients You Will Need

Quick-cooking oats
Chopped pecans
Flaxseed
Cinnamon
Kosher salt
Banana
Honey
Peanut butter
Vanilla extract
Semisweet chocolate
Coconut oil

Choosing Your Oats

I found that these bars work best with quick-cooking oats as this finer texture eliminates the need for flour and produces a soft and chewy bar texture.

If you don’t have quick-cooking oats on hand, you can easily make them yourself! Pulse old-fashioned oats in a food processor several times until oats are partially-chopped.

Tips for Perfect Oat Bars

Bake bars in an 8-inch square baking dish – I found that this size yields the perfect thickness for the bars.
Use ripe bananas – you will need two medium ripe bananas for these bars. The riper the banana = the sweeter the banana flavor!
Bake bars until a light golden brown – once the edges of bars are golden brown, you’ll know they’re done.
Cool bars completely before cutting – the bars will fall apart if you try to cut them while they’re still warm.
Melt chocolate with coconut oil – this will give the chocolate a texture that’s perfect for drizzling.

Recipe Variations

Try these ideas for a different twist on these bars.

Use a different nut – try almonds or walnuts in place of the pecans.
Try a different nut butter – try almond or cashew butter in place of the peanut butter.
Add dried fruit – fold in 1/2 cup dried cranberries, blueberries, or raisins.
Skip chocolate drizzle – try a vanilla powdered sugar glaze, white chocolate, or caramel in place of the chocolate.

Storing and Freezing Bars

These bars store well in an airtight container at room temperature up to 4 days. Perfect for a grab-and-go breakfast when you don’t have time to cook!

To freeze bars, first allow to cool completely and do not add chocolate. Cut into bars, store in a freezer-safe container, and freeze up to 2 months.

Thaw bars completely at room temperature and drizzle with melted chocolate before serving.

These bars kind of taste like a next-level version of those expensive soft-baked granola bars! It’ll be our little secret that these are about 10x cheaper and arguably, waaay better for ya.

Breakfast and snacktime is looking pretty dang fine!

Save this recipe using the ‘save to recipe box’ button below. If you make it, please let us know! Leave a comment + star rating below, or take a photo and tag it on Instagram with #wholeandheavenlyoven.

More breakfast bars to try next!

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