These Baked Banana Oatmeal Bars are soft and chewy, and taste like banana bread and banana oatmeal cookies. They're quick and easy to make, require just a few simple ingredients, and the recipe is easily customisable. They're vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar free, but can also be made completely sugar free and oil-free too. They're great for dessert, a snack or breakfast, and also perfect for meal prep and packed lunches.
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mash the bananas with a fork in a bowl.
Tip: Make sure to use ripe bananas.
- Mix together all the ingredients in a separate, larger mixing bowl.
Tip: Leave the mixture for 10 minutes as leaving the oats to soak for a bit will make them much easier to bind together.
- Transfer the mixture into a square baking tin.
Tip: Line the tin with greased baking paper to make it easier to remove the bars after.
- Scatter over the chopped pecan nuts and press them down into the batter.
- Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Leave to cool before cutting into squares!
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- To make this recipe free from added sugar, omit the maple syrup.
- You can use any type of oil: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- For an oil-free version, the coconut oil can be replaced with almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter or sunflower seed butter.
- If you don't like cinnamon, it can be omitted.
- You can replace the ground almonds with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version, use ground sunflower seeds instead of ground almonds and use a nut-free plant-based milk.
Other ingredients you can add
- Chocolate chips.
- Dried fruit: raisins or sultanas, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried mango, dried papaya, dried pineapple, chopped dates, chopped dried figs etc.
- Chopped nuts: walnuts, pecan nuts, Brazil nuts.
- Desiccated coconut or coconut flakes.
How long do these Banana Oatmeal Bars keep for?
They keep well in the fridge in an airtight container for a good few days. They also freeze well.
More vegan banana recipes
- Banana Cake
- Banana Cupcakes
- Banana Pancakes
- Banana Oatmeal Cookies
- Blueberry Banana Bread
- Banana Cream Pie
- Banana Muffins
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I'd really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Baked Banana Oatmeal Bars (Vegan + Gluten-Free)
Ingredients
- 4 medium-sized ripe bananas
- 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil, or nut butter such as peanut butter or almond butter)
- 8 tablespoons maple syrup * (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
- Pinch salt
- 200 g (1 ⅔ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) ** (or sub ground walnuts)
- 200 g (1 ⅔ cup) rolled oats (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
For topping (optional):
- 100 g (⅔ cup) pecan nuts , roughly chopped (or replace with chocolate chips or coconut flakes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Peel the bananas and place in a small bowl, then use a fork to mash until you get a smooth paste.
- Place the coconut oil in a separate, large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil).
- Once melted, add the maple syrup, cinnamon, salt, ground almonds, oats and baking powder to the same bowl.
- Mix well, adding a tiny splash of plant-based milk if it's looking too dry.
- Leave the mixture for 10 minutes as leaving the oats to soak for a bit will make them much easier to bind together.
- Transfer the mixture into a square or rectangular baking tin lined with greased baking paper - I used a 23cm/9inch square baking tin.
- Scatter over the chopped pecan nuts and press them down into the batter.
- Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes until golden brown.
- Leave to cool before cutting into squares.
- Keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Notes
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog - thank you.
Anonymous
Is there something I can replace for the oats? My son is sensitive to oats.
Rhian Williams
Hi! I think quinoa flakes or brown rice flakes would work if he’s ok with those!
Jill
It would be a good idea to make it clear that these are inappropriate for coeliacs because of the oats!
Rhian Williams
Thank you for sharing! As I have specified in the recipe ingredients list, it's important to ensure that the oats are gluten-free certified if coeliac!
K Evans
I made these last night with a few modifications. I used apple sauce instead of bananas and finely chopped walnuts instead of ground walnuts. I also doubled the recipe and added chopped apples and cranberries and added half of the amount of maple syrup to reduce the sugar.
It was yummy and I ate it with Greek yogurt. My version was more of a crisp without the sugary crisp on top. Thanks for this recipe.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so glad you liked it! And thank you for sharing your substitutions!