Last Updated on August 10, 2020
These Chocolate Chunk Banana Bars are a delicious way to use up your ripe bananas. They’re simple, require minimal ingredients, and are a perfect addition to breakfast or snack time!
I’ve been making this recipe for almost a year now, and it’s one of my go-to banana recipes when I’m meal prepping for the week. I love having something sweet to grab in the morning before my actual breakfast, and these are always a satisfying treat.
These bars have all the flavors of banana bread, but are lower in sugar and higher in fiber. They’re a great make ahead option for busy weeks, and leave your house smelling like a bakery. I love to pair them with a side of fruit, eggs, or yogurt for a completely balanced meal.
What’s in these Chocolate Chunk Banana Oatmeal Bars?
- spotty bananas: the browner, the better.
- coconut oil
- pure maple syrup
- rolled oats
- oat flour: I make my own by blending rolled oats until fine like flour!
- egg
- vanilla extract
- cinnamon
- salt
- lots of chocolate!
How to get your bananas to ripen faster
If you grabbed bananas at the store that aren’t ripening quick enough, you can store them in a brown paper bag to speed up the ripening process.
If you want immediate ripened bananas, try these tricks with your yellow bananas:
- Bake them on 350 F on a sheet pan for 15-20 minutes until brown, or
- Microwave in 1 minute increments for 2-3 minutes
When making this recipe, be sure your coconut oil is softened and not fully melted! You can refer to this post to get a better idea of what it should look like.
The texture of these chocolate chunk banana oatmeal bars is unbeatable. They’re light, moist (sorry, I said it!), and have pools of melted chocolate in each bite.
They’re a perfect gluten-free and nut-free treat to have on hand, and can even be frozen! I can’t wait for you guys to try them!
Chocolate Chunk Banana Oatmeal Bars
Course: Baked goods9
servings10
minutes25
minutes35
minutesNOTES:
You can make your own oat flour by blending rolled oats in the blender until fine
You can substitute an equal amount of applesauce for the coconut oil
They freeze well for up to 2-3 months
Ingredients
2 2 large spotty bananas, mashed
1/2 cup 1/2 softened coconut oil
1/4 cup 1/4 maple syrup
1 cup 1 quick-cooking rolled oats
1/3 cup 1/3 oat flour
1 1 egg
1 tsp 1 vanilla extract
1 tsp 1 cinnamon
1/4 tsp 1/4 salt
1 tsp 1 baking soda
1 3.5 oz bar 1 of dark chocolate, broken into chunks (or 1/3 cup of chocolate chunks)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the mashed bananas, oil, maple syrup, egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk together until smooth.
- Add in the oats, oat flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda.
- Fold in the chocolate chunks, saving some to top with.
- Pour into a parchment lined 8 X 8 baking dish, top with remaining chocolate and bake on 350 for about 20-25 minutes, until the top starts to brown and its firm to touch.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then slice into 9 bars.
- Keep stored on the counter for up to 4 days, or in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @somethingnutritious on Instagram- I’d love to see your creations!
The use of dark chocolate gives it a nice flavor not too sweet. However, this recipe uses wayyy too much coconut oil and leaves them super mushy and too greasy. I should of known better but live and learn. Definitely need to cut down the coconut oil.
Hi Gal, do you have the nutrition information for this recipe?
Hi Esther, unfortunately I don’t I’m sorry!
These are SOOO GOOD!! I made them with avocado oil instead of coconut oil and they’re delish. Can’t wait to make these every week. Such a good treat, breakfast, health afternoon snack/ post work out snack.
Love this recipe! Do you have a way to make it vegan? A substitute for the egg?
Hey Caroline, you may be able to use flax egg or chia egg instead! Just combine one tbsp of either flax or chia with 3 tbsp of water and let it sit for 5 minutes to form 1 egg replacer
Yum! So moist and delicious!
So glad you liked it!!
I make these on a weekly basis for
My boyfriend to snack on (no more sugary granola bars!) I typically leave out the egg, swap oat flour for extra oats and sometimes use applesauce
Instead of oil and they turn out great!!’ So yummy!
So happy to hear that!
Love this recipe!! I live off these granola bars—bake them every other week, they’re addicting!! Would love to try the freezer tip mentioned above to save some time—but will they have the same texture & taste as they usually do when stored in my fridge? Thanks so much!!
Hey Reilly, I’ve frozen these before and the texture has still been great! You can let them thaw overnight in the fridge, or pop them in the microwave for about 1 minute until warm.
These bars taste amazing and are super easy to whip up! The whole family enjoyed them for breakfast. They were exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!
This recipe turned out well, I will be using it again. Used a muffin tin to make them to make them easier to store and serve and it worked out perfectly.
I’m so happy to hear that!
Anything you can substitute for the bananas? Unfortunately I live with someone who won’t eat anything baked with bananas. I’ve tried.
Hey Linda, you can try my chocolate chip oatmeal bars instead! They’re similar but without the banana- https://somethingnutritiousblog.com/chocolate-chip-oatmeal-bars/
So delicious! We finished these in one evening! I will make these again because I love that they’re nut free and I can send it with my daughter for a school snack
Whipped these up last night and they turned out perfect. I did not have coconut oil, so I used avocado oil. They have a moist texture and right amount of banana and chocolate flavor and not too sweet.
So happy to hear you enjoyed them, Tammy! ❤️
I haven’t made these yet but I’d like to recommend that you put an actual volume for the bananas. “2 large” bananas is how much? 3/4 cup? 1 cup? 1 1/4 cups?
It’s about 3/4 cups!
I made them yesterday and they turned out to be absolutely delicious! I added blueberries and choc chips and gosh, can’t stop eating them 🙂
Absolutely love this! Perfect texture and great flavour 🙂 just wondering could these be frozen and reheated as needed?
Hey Charlie, I’m so glad you liked them! They can definitely be frozen. You can defrost a couple in the fridge overnight as needed, or pop them in the oven or microwave from frozen until they’re defrosted!
These are amazing!!! It has an amazing chewy, gooey texture. I will lower the amount of coconut oil next time (I think I might have put a bit too much).
Thank you!!! They’re such a good meal prep
My mom came in the kitchen saying the delicious smell couldn’t keep her away! I didn’t add the maple syrup as we ran out but it came out perfectly sweet nevertheless. Yum!
Amazing! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Sunday staple in my house!! Such an easy and delicious prep to have snacks/breakfast for the week!
Thank you, Lyndsey!❤️❤️
Came out delicious!
❤️❤️❤️
Super easy to whip together but, unfortunately, it came out terrible. Despite adding another 10 minutes to the bake time and pulling it out when the top looked brown and firm (as directed) but extremely wet and flavorless. Disappointing.
Hey Kate, I’m so sorry to hear that. Did you make any substitutions? I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on this recipe on Instagram so I’m not sure what went wrong.
I’m hoping you’ll find something else on my blog that will turn out well for you. As always, I’m here to answer any questions if needed!
Wow these are so good!! These will definitely be a staple for me & my roommates going forward 🙂
I made these because I had some overripe bananas I wanted to use. But now I will be letting my bananas become overripe just to make these! They are super delicious!
Aww thank you Naomi! So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
These turned out great and were super easy to make! Will definitely be making again.
I’m so happy to hear that Michelle!
Hi Gal! May I omit the maple syrup and also use a chia or flax egg?
Hey Jasmine, if your bananas are really spotty you can definitely omit the sweetener! I haven’t tested with flax/chia egg, but I believe it should work. I can’t guarantee the same texture though, but would love to know if you try it!