6 Tablespoons unsalted butter or plant butter, softened + extra for greasing dish
6 Tablespoon packed brown sugar or coconut sugar
6 Tablespoons cane sugar, maple sugar, or monk fruit sweetener (such as Lakanto)
1 cup creamy almond butter, peanut butter, tahini, or Granola Butter (Oat Haus brand)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats, preferably organic (do not use steel-cut oats)
¾ cup quick-cooking oats, preferably organic (I pulse old-fashioned oats in a food processor or spice grinder)
¼ cup ground flax meal
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon sea salt
1 ⅓ cups combination of chocolate chips, chopped nuts (peanuts are great), diced dried fruit (prunes go well with chocolate chips), shredded coconut, hemp seeds, cacao nibs
Optional: Flaky salt
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking dish with butter and line with unbleached parchment paper. Or if you want these to be thicker, use an 11-inch or 10-inch round skillet or baking dish.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugars, and nut butter until fluffy and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. (You can use a hand mixer too)
Add the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine.
Add both oats, flax meal, baking soda, and salt and mix together. It will be a stiff sticky mixture.
Add your desired combination of chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, and coconut and mix until just combined.
Transfer batter to the prepared baking dish and spread out with a spatula or wooden spoon. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, if you like. Let the batter sit for 5-10 minutes before baking so the oats soften up a little. Bake in the oven for 17 minutes until the batter has slightly puffed but is still soft to the touch. You want this to be slightly underdone. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 1 hour before cutting into bars. They will firm up as they cool. They are fine at room temp, but I store them in the fridge so they last longer.
Notes
If you’re in a pinch, to bring eggs and butter to room temp, cut the butter into small pieces and leave out on the counter while you prep the rest of the ingredients. It will soften up by the time you’re ready to start with the recipe. For the eggs, place them in a bowl of warm water and they’ll quickly come to room temp.
The volume of a 13 x 9-inch pan is 117 sq. inches. The volume of a 12-inch ROUND baking dish or skillet is 113 square inches, so that’s an equivalent if you wanted to bake this in a skillet. I did this in an 11-inch skillet (volume is 95 sq. inches) and it worked well, but was a little thicker. Use an 8 x 8 inch baking dish (volume is 64 sq. inches) to make a half batch of this recipe.
I don’t recommend using sunflower seed butter in this recipe as it might result in a green tint (unless you don’t mind) due to the sunflower seed butter reacting with the baking soda.
Recipe by Pamela Salzman at https://pamelasalzman.com/flourless-monster-cookie-bars-recipe/