You’ll flip over these healthy, delicious Raspberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Bars. A vegan oatmeal cookie base is filled with dark chocolate chips, and baked with a layer of raspberry filling in the middle. A cookie lover’s dream!
*This post is sponsored by SunButter, a sunflower seed spread perfect for allergy-safe baking and cooking! Thanks for supporting the brands that keep Sunkissed Kitchen running.
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Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars – with a Delicious Twist!
For serious cookie lovers only! To make these beautiful and delicious treats, I started with my Vegan Oatmeal Cookie recipe. If you’ve never tried them, they are hands down my favorite cookie.
All the cookie recipes on Sunkissed Kitchen are made with healthier ingredients. I swap in gluten free ingredients, like oats, almond flour, and healthy nut/seed butters, and lower the sugar as much as possible. Seriously, if you haven’t tried my other recipes, you’re in for a huge surprise!
Using cups of sugar, as many “standard” recipes do masks the delicious flavors of baked goods. My low sugar offerings have all the great flavor and cravability, without the huge sugar crash. In fact, many of my baked goods are healthy enough to eat for breakfast!
These Raspberry Oatmeal Cookie Bars will not disappoint! Baking the dough pressed into a pan yields a cookie-dough like bar with lots of dark chocolate, the perfect contrast to the sweet raspberry filling.
You Must Try these Cookies Because:
- Dark Chocolate + Raspberries + SunButter Sunflower Seed Butter 😍 What a combo!
- Whole foods ingredients — these start with whole oats, flax seeds, sunflower seed butter, combined in a magical way.
- Easily Vegan (or not!): these bars are vegan, except I like to use pastured butter when I have it on hand. The coconut oil route is my go-to, so if plant based is your thing, these cookies are incredible!
- Gluten Free & Allergy Friendly – use gluten free rolled oats, if necessary! SunButter is made from sunflower seeds, so nut free and safe for schools!
SunButter is one of my favorite things to bake healthy with! It gives baked goods a caramely flavor and adds a boost of nutrition. I use it for muffins, as a filling in bars, and in smoothies! Any place you use nut butter, you can sub this superfood spread!
I use the No Sugar Added and the Organic varieties most often for baking and cooking, but the crunchy variety is mind blowing!
How to Make Raspberry Stuffed Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Step 1: In a mixing bowl, cream together the SunButter and the melted butter (or coconut oil). Add the flax seed meal, vanilla, maple syrup, baking powder, and sea salt. Do not use baking soda in these bars. Baking soda has a reaction with SunButter that will turn the cookies green. The reaction is harmless and doesn’t affect the taste but will ruin the beautiful look of the cookies!
Step 2: Add the oatmeal and coconut to the bowl, and mix to combine.
Step 3: Add dark chocolate chips, and fold in to combine.
Step 4: Press HALF of the cookie dough into a parchment-lined baking pan. Use wet hands or a pastry roller to form an even layer.
Step 5: Add the raspberries and arrowroot to a bowl, and mash into a filling.
Step 6: Add the raspberry filling to the top of the layer of cookie dough in the pan.
Step 7: Spoon the remaining cookie dough over the raspberry layer in mounds. Use wet hands to pull the dough out to cover the raspberry layer. Try not to press the dough down, which will push the raspberry layer out. Instead, try to flatten the dough by pulling it towards the sides of the pan.
Step 8: Bake the cookies for 18 minutes. The cookies might look under baked, but they will have an incredible cookie-dough like texture! Wait until the bars fully cool prior to slicing them into bars.
Tips and Variations for your Perfect Raspberry Cookie Bars
No Raspberries?: Bummer, that’s a shame! You can sub your favorite raspberry jam for these cookies, use frozen raspberries, or even sub finely chopped strawberries or mashed blackberries. If you MUST, bake these Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Bars with no filling.
Make them Gluten Free: The recipe is gluten free as written if you use a certified gluten free oatmeal. If oatmeal isn’t okay on your gluten free diet, skip this recipe and try an almond flour based cookie!
Other Additions: If you’re a nut lover like me, add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans to the cookie dough along with the dark chocolate. If you can’t find quality dark chocolate chips, use an 85% dark chocolate bar, and chop it up into delicious chunks!
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Raspberry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup SunButter No Sugar Added (add 1/4 teaspoon of salt if using Organic SunButter)
- 1/2 cup maple syrup sub honey or date syrup
- 1/2 cup butter melted, or coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons flax seed meal
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder *not baking soda (which will make the bars turn green)
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 1/4 cup oat flour grind whole oats in a blender to form a flour
- 3/4 cup coconut unsweetened
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
Raspberry Filling
- 1 cup raspberries fresh or frozen (thaw and drain excess water if frozen)
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper, or grease well.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine SunButter and butter (or coconut oil), and cream together.
- Add the maple syrup, flax seed meal, baking powder, and salt. Mix to incorporate.
- Add the oat flour and coconut, and fold in until no dry ingredients remain. Fold in dark chocolate chips.
- Into the prepared baking dish, add half of the cookie dough. Use wet hands or a pastry roller to press the cookie dough into an even layer.
- Add the raspberry filling, spreading it into an even layer.
- Place mounds of the remaining cookie dough over the raspberry filling, and use wet hands to spread it out into a layer. Be careful not to just push down and squish the raspberry layer. Think of pulling the dough out into a layer rather than pushing it down.
- Bake the cookie bars for 18 minutes. The cookies will look slightly under baked when you take them out, but will have an amazing cookie-dough like texture. Allow to fully cool before slicing them into bars (I like to freeze them for the best looking bars).
- Store leftover cookies refrigerated in an air tight container for up to 2 weeks.
Raspberry Filling
- Add the raspberries and arrowroot powder to a small bowl, and mash the raspberries. The arrowroot will help the raspberries gel into a filling rather than make the cookies soggy.
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