The Spunky Coconut

Gluten-Free ❤ Dairy-Free ❤ Paleo

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N’oatmeal Bars (gluten free mock oatmeal bars)

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Warning: These bars (and the cookies they’re based on) are seriously addictive.

But don’t worry—they’re packed with protein and fiber thanks to the almond butter and shredded coconut. And they have very little (natural) sugar, thanks to my good friend Mr. Stevia 🙂

How did they come to be? That would be the brilliant Jenni, at The Urban Poser. She created these crazy good Grain Free No ‘Oatmeal’ Creme Pie Cookies, and I proceeded to make them about a dozen times. I gave two batches away, and my family and I devoured ate the rest.

At some point I decided to take the modifications I made to the cookies, and turn them into grain-free mock oatmeal bars. Yum yum. They are so good.

In case you’re wondering, I did make them with an egg and no chia meal to see what would happen. They did rise a little bit more, but otherwise there was no difference. They were crumbly before being refrigerated, just like these egg-free bars.

N’oatmeal Bars (mock oatmeal bars)

grain-free, egg-free, low glycemic index

1 cup almond butter (or other nut butter or SunButter)
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp water
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp vanilla stevia
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1 tbsp chia seed meal (I grind chia seeds in a coffee grinder) (OR substitute 1 egg and use half the water above, which is 2.5 tablespoons)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp grain-free baking powder (omit baking powder if using an egg)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda

Directions:

  1. Add the almond butter, water, honey, vanilla, stevia, and shredded coconut to a bowl. Mix with an electric mixer. Note: If you use a more runny almond butter you won’t need as much water—your batter should be fairly thick.
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl. Mix with electric mixer.
  3. Transfer to square greased baking dish. Spread evenly.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
  5. Cool on the counter, then refrigerate until cold before serving.
  6. Optional: try topping with my Coconut Buttercream Frosting

Note: These bars are best cold. If you eat them room temperature or warm they will crumble more.

♥, Kelly

P.S. You can read why I like shopping for my ingredients on iHerb.

 

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Comments

  1. These sound great. The one thing my son really misses eating a primal diet is oatmeal…but these will be right up his alley. Thank you so much. xx

  2. HI Kelly, I recently discovered I might have a nut allergy – do you know what i might be able to subsitute for the almonds butter?

    • Leah I n ade then with sunbutter because that’s all I had and they were great. I would imagine they tasted a little nuttier than if I’d used almond butter though.

  5. OMG! I am so excited for these bars! I have been following you for months now and have loved every recipe I’ve tried so far. But this has me itching to get to the store ASAP to pick up some of the ingredients I need in order to make the bars. We’re addicted to homemade granola bars here and I’ve been wondering how to scale back our consumption of them due to the grain. This is perfect! Thank you!

  7. What would be a good substitute for the raisins, that would have less sugar? Thanks! Can’t wait to give these a try. =)

  8. Sounds super yummy! What could I use in place of the vanilla stevia as I don’t have any? Thanks!!

  9. I made these tonight but didn’t have any honey and substituted it for agave and I had about 3/4 cup of almond butter and topped it off with peanut butter. My family don’t like raisins baked in food so I added a few 70% cocoa chips and they were really good that way too but I want to make them again with honey as soon as I can get to the store and get some! Thanks for this recipe it’s yummy!

  10. Okay, one more question. Is there also a substitute for the honey, which is also low in sugar? Happy baking! =)

  12. I was desparate for a treat yesterday and the cupboards were relatively bare. So I made these with a few substitutions: natural peanut butter, coconut chips roughly chopped, no raisins. They are so good – remind me of a cake-y No-bake cookie. Next time I would use less cinnamon – but that is just a personal preference (or maybe due to the peanut butter). Kelly, when you said “addictive” you weren’t lying!!!

  14. Hey Kelly – I substituted peanut butter and left all the ingredients the same because I am allergic to almonds. I found they kind of crumbled apart. How do I avoid this from happening again.

    The peanut butter was natural organic peanut butter – was it maybe to dry?

  15. If I use an egg in place of the chia meal, do I also use less water? Thanks in advance for your reply!

  16. I made these as a treat for my family. I used homemade pecan butter since I can’t have almonds. I used the chia seeds but left out the baking powder and increased the soda to 1/2 tsp. WOW! These tasted like real oatmeal raisin cookies. We have been on a grain-free, sugar free diet for 5 months and these were a yummy treat! Thank you for the recipe. My husbands first reaction was “these taste like oatmeal”. I will be making these again for sure.

  17. Made this last night! Very tasty. I used an egg instead of the chia seed meal and dates instead of raisins. I think I’ll top it with coconut whipped cream tonight 🙂

  21. Hi, I like all things coconut, except coconut flakes 😉 What can I use in place of the shredded coconut?

  27. I absolutely love these. I find it hard to find recipes that are gf,df,and sugar free. I am on this site everyday looking for new ideas. There’s not one recipe I haven’t loved.

  28. WOW! These are amazing! I did have to make two changes-I substituted maple syrup for the honey, and used cut up pieces of date paste in place of the raisins due to pantry inventory. They are so sweet and decadent. They remind me of a brownie. My gluten loving family loves then! We are trying to go GF completely and with this recipe and website I think it will be very easy! Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes!

  29. LOVING Mary and Sarah’s tips…using maple syrup works to perfection….and I want to try this with homemade pecan butter….Would hazelnut butter work as well?…

    Any thoughts on Kitul or yucon syrup or coconut nectar as lower (?) glycemic-level liquid sugars?

    Love the use of chia in your recipes and I can tell you do lots of kitchen-lab “testing” …as the textures are always perfection and spot-on as you describe. Thank you for your giving and generous culinary shares. We ALL profit shamelessly.

  30. OOps!!..Meant to respond to Ronnda’s questions as well…Perhaps, goji berries would be a lower GI dried fruit to sub?…Or think even bits of fresh fig?..

    Also, here in France there is a liquid sweetener called Kitul (?) which is not supposed to affect glycemic levels much (safe for diabetics) which I see in the bio/organic food boutiques here…I am not sure it is “Spunky Coconut”-approved!…I have yet to try it…but it looks intriguing?

  31. OOps!!..Meant to respond to Ronnda’s questions as well…Perhaps, goji berries would be a lower GI dried fruit to sub?…Or think even bits of fresh fig?..

    Also, here in France there is a liquid sweetener called Kitul (?) which is not supposed to affect glycemic levels much (safe for diabetics) which I see in the bio/organic food boutiques here…I am not sure it is “Spunky Coconut”-approved!…I have yet to try it…but it looks intriguing?

  34. I made these!! They ARE yummy! I didn’t have enough raisins so I added a bit of dried figs. I also threw in a handful of pumpkin seeds. Crunchy

  35. These bar are amazing. The recipe as written is perfect. To change up the flavor, I’ve used homemade cashew butter in place of almond butter and didn’t add any honey because cashews are sweet enough for my family. I love the versitility of this recipe and how you can make it your own without a lot of work. Thanks for sharing.

  37. The photo reminds me of my Mom’s Hermits. I want to make your recipe and shape them like she did for Hermits. Is the dough too soft to do this? I would portion the dough into tennis-size balls. and pat each into a long flat rectangle about 2-3 inches wide. Then brush with 1 beaten egg (for shiny traditional looking hermit top) Bake 350 for 15-25 minutes. Slice 1-1/4 inches on the diagonal while warm.
    For a sugar free substitute for honey, one could use Nature’s Hollow “Honey” or “Maple Syrup” There are very good xylitol based syrups. 1/4 cup has 50 calories and 19 grams carbohydrate.

  38. Hi,
    I am also interested in using coconut sugar instead of stevia, and have seen other comments about substitutions for stevia with no responses… can you please let us know? I will try this recipe this week using coconut sugar and can definitely let the group know the outcome.

    THanks, and keep up the great work and giving us excellent recipes!

    jennifer

    • I personally haven’t made those substitutions, so I’m afraid I couldn’t say. It would take a little experimenting.

  39. I was soooo happy with these bars. My toddler recently had wheat, corn and oats taken out of his diet due to an intolerance and that pretty much ruled out all of the snacks I had at home for him. I made these bad with fingers crossed, and he LOVED them. I got 16 snack sized bars out of one recipe. I also added chopped dates to the recipe and they are fantastic! Thank you

  40. Hello! Have these in my oven right now – can’t wait to try them. Just a tip – really don’t need the electric mixer. They stir up very quickly without it (and it’s just another thing to wash). My mouth is already watering – thanks for sharing this great recipe!

  42. I was so excited to try these because they were quick to make and sounded yummy. But they are just crumbly even when cold. Is there a way to make these hold together? I followed exact ingredients and used the chia not egg. Thanks for any tips.

  43. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I couldn’t stop eating my son’s Cliff Bars or find a decent substitute until now. I wanted a chocolate chip cookie bar so I added 1-2 ounces of chopped baking chocolate (I can’t have any sweeteners other than stevia) instead of the raisins, cinnamon and allspice. I also skipped the honey and just used 3/4 tsp of Trader Joe’s Powdered Stevia. These are so delicious and taste just like chocolate chip cookies. I just made a brownie version with cashew butter (I used up all my almond butter on the first two batches), 1/4 c. cocoa powder and the same amount of chopped chocolate. Yum!

  44. Thank you for the recipe Kelly, we have made it so many times!! Here’s how I have adapted the taste to our family over time:
    I never add the stevia in this recipe (it was too intense for us), the honey alone sweetens perfectly.

    I always do the chia seed replacement (instead of eggs) and have never ground the seeds but use straight from the bag. I do soak the chia seeds in the water (1/3 cup for every 1 Tb of chia seeds) for 15 min before adding to batter – this is my standard way to prepare chia seeds as an egg replacement.

    One of my favorite changes is using apple juice sweetened cranberries in place of the raisins.

    I always double the recipe in a 9×13 and freeze bars or squares for snacks – they are easy to eat right out of the freezer and even yummier this way according to my husband and children.