Get ready for these thick and chewy Healthy Monster Cookie Bars loaded with sweet chocolate candies and extra chocolate chips. These gluten free cookie bars have a sweet oat cookie base topped with melty chocolates for the ultimate monster cookie experience!
You can make these monster cookie bars in one bowl with only 10 ingredients and in less than 30 minutes. Now that’s my kind of dessert! Not to mention they’re extremely delicious yet have all the health benefits of being gluten free and vegan.
For more cookie bar deliciousness, try out these Gluten Free Peanut Butter Blondies. They’re soft, fudgy, and oh so chewy with sweet peanut butter flavor and lots of chocolate goodness! The perfect combination between a cookie and a brownie.
Ingredients in Healthy Monster Cookie Bars
Almond Butter – Use unsalted and natural almond butter for best consistency + flavor. You can use regular almond butter but beware of added sugar, salts, or oil that may affect the flavor or texture of these monster cookie bars.
Coconut Sugar – A refined sugar free sweetener with a delicious caramel-esc flavor.
Maple Syrup – Another refined sugar free sweetener that pairs great with coconut sugar. I use pure maple syrup with nothing added, there are lots of great options on amazon for a decent price.
Coconut Oil – The flavor of the coconut oil is covered up by the deliciousness of everything else. You could always sub it for another neutral oil such as avocado oil though.
Salt – Only add salt if your almond butter is unsalted!
Rolled Oats – To achieve the chewy cookie bar texture it’s important to use whole rolled oats versus quick oats. I love Bob’s Red Mill brand for these!
Oat Flour – One of my favorite gluten free flours, I usually buy online from Bob’s Red Mill. Alternatively, you can also make this flour at home by processing until fine in a blender or processor.
Chocolate Chips – No monster cookie creation would be complete without some melty chocolate chips. I love to use the 63% extra dark chocolate chips from Guittard, but you can use whatever brand + type of chocolate chip!
UNREAL Candies – These healthy candies are actually unreal. I love how they taste so similar to M&M’s and such but are made with better for you ingredients.
How to Make Monster Cookie Bars
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 8″ x 8″ pan with parchment paper.
- In a small saucepan, heat almond butter, coconut sugar, maple syrup, coconut oil, and salt over medium low heat until simmering. Continue stirring for 3-5 minutes, or until mixture starts to thicken.
- Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract until combined.
- Add in your rolled oats and oat flour, stir until well combined. Mixture should be thick.
- Using your hands or a spatula, press ⅔ of mixture into an even layer on the bottom of the parchment lined 8” x 8” baking pan. Press firmly, you want a sturdy crust.
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips across the crust, followed by the UNREAL Dark Chocolate Quinoa Gems.
- With the remaining ⅓ of the dough, form a ball then pinch off clumps & evenly sprinkle over the top. Use fingers to lightly press the clumps of dough into the chocolate & gem filling.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes at 350F, or until edges start to brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before cutting into 12 squares. Enjoy!
How to Make Oat Flour
Oat flour is one of my favorite gluten free flours because you can actually make it yourself. Saves money and as long as you have oats, you’ll be able to make oat flour!
You can use either rolled or quick oats and then you’ll just need a blender or food processor. You can either make a big batch all at once or measure out the oats for how much flour you’ll need.
Either way, add the oats to the blender/processor and blend on high until a fine flour forms. You might need to shake things around or give it a stir to ensure all the oats get ground up. Then you’re set! Use the flour right away or store in an airtight container to use later.
Alternatively, you can also buy it! I love the quality from Bob’s Red Mill 🙂
What is a Monster Cookie?
A monster cookie can truly be customized to whatever you’d like but it does have a few basic characteristics. Typically it’s made with a base of peanut butter and oats although I do use almond butter for these bars – you can also substitute peanut butter in this recipe if you know you’d prefer that flavor! After that, the only qualifying parts are to add chocolate chips and candies!
Traditional recipes use M&M’s or another sort of chocolate candy, but I chose to use UNREAL. Their dark chocolate quinoa gems have crispy bits in each candy, yet melt in your mouth with each bite. Plus they’re made with better for you ingredients and less sugar than conventional candies. A win-win for me!
How to Store These Vegan Cookie Bars
Store any leftovers in an airtight container to preserve their soft and chewy texture. They can stay at room temperature or in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for three months. Thaw them overnight in the fridge or heat in the microwave for gooey cookie deliciousness!
For more tasty bar creations, check out these blog favorites:
Gluten Free Peanut Butter Blondies: Soft, fudgy, and oh so chewy, these Gluten Free Peanut Butter Blondies might become your new favorite dessert. They’re sweet, peanut buttery, and studded with melty chocolate peanut butter cups in every bite.
Peanut Butter & Jelly Crumble Bars: A soft peanut butter dough is layered with sweet raspberry jelly, chocolate cups, more jelly, and topped off with crumbled peanut butter dough before being baked to golden perfection.
If you try this recipe or any of the above ones, please let me know by leaving a comment and rating in the boxes below! I always love to hear from you, and it also helps other people find this recipe when they search online for the BEST Monster Cookie Bars 🙂
Ingredients
BASE/CRUMBLE
- ⅔ cup natural creamy almond butter unsalted
- ⅓ cup coconut sugar
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cup rolled oats
- ½ cup oat flour
TOPPINGS
- ¾ cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup UNREAL Dark Chocolate Quinoa Gems
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 8″ x 8″ pan with parchment paper.
- In a small saucepan, heat almond butter, coconut sugar, maple syrup, coconut oil, and salt over medium low heat until simmering. Continue stirring for 3-5 minutes, or until mixture starts to thicken.
- Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract until combined.
- Add in your rolled oats and oat flour, stir until well combined. Mixture should be thick.
- Using your hands or a spatula, press ⅔ of mixture into an even layer on the bottom of the parchment lined 8” x 8” baking pan. Press firmly, you want a sturdy crust.
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips across the crust, followed by the UNREAL Dark Chocolate Quinoa Gems.
- With the remaining ⅓ of the dough, form a ball then pinch off clumps & evenly sprinkle over the top. Use fingers to lightly press the clumps of dough into the chocolate & gem filling.
- Place in the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes at 350F, or until edges start to brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before cutting into 12 squares. Enjoy!
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