Oat Breakfast Bars
by Sommer Collier — last updated on Feb 24, 2025 
Breakfast Oatmeal Bars Recipe – Gluten-free and Vegan breakfast bars made with oats, dates, and nuts. These delicious oat bars make fabulous after-school snacks!
Why We Love Oat Breakfast Bars
Back-to-school breakfasts can be a little tricky.
We want our babies to have full bellies before they head out for the day. Yet it’s not always possible to make a full-scale breakfast, with early bus schedules and such. That’s why we are big fans of breakfast bars!
Although you can buy oat breakfast bars in the cereal aisle at your local grocery store, they taste SO much better homemade.
Not only that, you have the ability to adjust the ingredients to suit your family’s likes and dietary needs.
Healthy Oat Bar Recipe
Our daughter Ava struggled with health issues last winter. Although she is much better now, a side effect of her illness is that she now has strong reactions (intolerances) to Dairy, Gluten, and Rice.
The rest of us can pretty much eat anything we like. However, we have experimented with all sorts of alternative recipes so she can enjoy desserts, and other foods kids like to eat.
Rice has surprisingly been the trickiest food to avoid, because so many of the gluten-free and dairy-free options available are made with rice flour or rice syrup.
This Breakfast Oat Bar Recipe is a copycat recipe we created after finding oat bars she could eat at a local coffee shop called the Dripolator.
We were surprised to find gluten-free vegan baked goods, without rice flour, so we bought a couple extra bars as taste-testers and went home to experiment in the kitchen.
The Oat Breakfast Bar Recipe we came up with is soft and decadent with a strong brown sugar oatmeal essence. There are nuts and chunks of dates speckled throughout to offer crunch and depth of flavor.
It’s important to note, that because they are vegan, they are also egg-free. This makes them great for anyone with food allergies or intolerances to Wheat/Gluten, Dairy, Eggs, Rice… and the Nuts could be easily omitted as well!
I find they are great to take to parties and events, when you don’t know who you’re serving.
Vegan Breakfast Bars
We used “flax eggs” in place of eggs, which consist of ground flax seeds and water. The mixture thickens into a gel substance that makes a wonderful egg substitute for baking.
However, if no one in your family is vegan or intolerant to eggs, you could certainly remove the flax seeds and water, and add 2 large eggs to this Breakfast Oat Bar Recipe.
Our Breakfast Oat Bar Recipe makes a perfect quickie breakfast or snack because each bar offers nearly a full serving of oats, along with nuts and dates.
Yet best of all they taste delicious and have the most fabulous soft, moist, and slightly crumbly texture, so no one ever turns them down.
Give them a try this week!
Oatmeal Breakfast Bars Ingredients
- Gluten-free quick oats, or rolled oats (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
- Light brown sugar, packed
- Vegan butter, sticks or spread (Earth Balance)
- Water
- Chia seeds or flax seeds, ground
- Vanilla extract
- Ground cinnamon
- Salt
- Chopped dates
- Chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds)
Check Out Our Oat Breakfast Bars Recipe Below!
Optional Oatmeal Bar Add-Ins or Swaps
- Dried cranberries
- Sunflower seeds
- Cashews
- Chocolate Chips
- Raisins
- Dried cherries
- Dried banana pieces
- Nut butter (almond butter, cashew butter, or peanut butter instead of vegan butter)
More Quick Breakfast Ideas
- Bruleed Grapefruit
- Hawaiian Luau Bread
- Kouign Amann Recipe
- Egg White Frittata with Spinach
- Protein Pudding (Protein Yogurt)
- Paleo Pancakes (Coconut Flour Pancakes)
- Simple Strawberry Smoothies
- The Breakfast Salad Recipe
- Best Classic Homemade Granola
- Ham and Cheese Breakfast Panini
- Tex Mex Breakfast Egg Muffins
- Easy Homemade Larabars
Oat Breakfast Bars Recipe
Video
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups gluten-free quick oats (I used Bob’s Red Mill)
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
- 1 1/4 cups vegan butter, sticks or spread (Earth Balance)
- 6 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons chia seeds or flax seeds, ground
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup chopped dates
- 2/3 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 8×8-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place the flax or chia seeds in a food processor, spice grinder, or coffee grinder. Grind the seeds into powder and place it in a small bowl. Add the water and stir. Allow the mixture to sit and thicken for 15 minutes to create “flax eggs” or “vegan egg substitute.”
- Meanwhile, pour 2 1/2 cups of oats into the food processor and grind into fine oat flour.
- Place the brown sugar and vegan butter into the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on high to cream the “butter” and sugar together until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
- Roughly chop the nuts. Then remove the pits from the dates and chop into small pieces.
- Scrape the mixing bowl with a spatula and add the vanilla, cinnamon, salt, oat flour and remaining oats. Beat on low. Add in the flag “eggs” and continue to beat until smooth.
- Finally, turn the mixer on low and mix in the dates and nuts. Scoop the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Spread the batter out evenly, then sprinkle the top with extra oats if desired.
- Bake for 45 minutes, or until the center is puffed and doesn’t jiggle when you shake the pan. Cool the bars completely. Then cut into 16 squares. Store in an airtight container for up to one week.
I made these and they were delicious 😋 I added unsweetened shredded coconut on the top 😌 soooo good
Thanks for the recipe! Looking forward to trying this. I am going to do it with BRM Organic Creamy Buckwheat Cereal and, in place of butter, Nutiva Butter Flavored Organic Coconut Oil. That stuff is awesome BTW, for you sunflower- and soy-free vegans. It tastes like sweet butter. I’ve never tried it for baking. Per the Nutiva website, for best results, use ¾ of the recipe’s indicated amount of butter, and replace the remaining ¼ with water. I will see.
Just made it! Can’t wait to try it 😊
Can I use olive oil instead of butter? (I have reactions to coconut)
Hi Tayyibah,
Butter would be the best substitution. The bars will taste amazing!
These are sooooo delicious! I cut the sugar to one cup and they are still sweet enough. Thanks for sharing!
I haven’t made these yet, but they look amazing! Wondering though if I can substitute coconut oil for the vegan butter? Thx!
Hi Pamela,
Absolutely! Happy Baking!! :)
Your style of cooking is right up my alley and speaks to my heart! Thank you for all the lovely recipes !
I made these breakfast bars a couple days ago and they are so good! I sometimes have a difficult time making vegan baked goods for my daughter and grandson but these bars are amazing and do not taste like many so-called “healthy” bars. They’re filling and a perfect on the go breakfast. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I give it 5+ stars!
Hi Tamra,
Yay! I’m so glad they were a success for you. :)
Will gladly pack for office ….. :-)
Can you reduce the amount of sugar ? The recipe sounds wonderful but 24 grams of sugar is more than I’d like to consume.
Hi Cynthia!
Yes, you can reduce the sugar a little, but it does change the texture a little bit.