These healthy apple pie oat bars are my five-year-olds current obsession. It was a recipe that I threw together on a bit of a hunch, and wouldn’t you know it, it totally worked.
THIS is not always the case, most of my recipes start off pretty hit and miss and take a lot of tweaks in the recipe testing process. But this healthy oat bar recipe I pretty much nailed at the first go!
Apple and oat is a pretty common combo in my house… I make loads of oat snacks, including apple oat pancakes, apple oat no-bake bites and now these apple oat bars all the time.
What do I use for the Apple Component to make these Soft Oat Bars?
I use apple purée in this oat bar recipe. One thing I get asked now that I have a few international readers is what do I mean by apple purée, by apple purée I mean cooked apple that is then blitzed until smooth, think apple baby food or applesauce that is just all apple.
Now you can either make your own apple purée/sauce which I do most of the time, but I also do keep cans of tinned apple (many literally only contain apple) which I then blitz, or sometimes I just grab a jar of unsweetened applesauce, which is all done for me.
If you are going to use apple sauce just check the ingredients. You want it to be unsweetened and have pretty much only apple as an ingredient.
The photo above is a little behind the scenes, not sure if you can tell but my pics are usually taken on a tile sitting on my kitchen table…
Are these Healthy Oat Bars Suitable for baby-led-weaning?
In regards to the ingredients, yes they are absolutely fine. The texture of these oat bars is nice and soft and not crunchy which also makes them useful as finger food for little ones. As with everything though, babies develop their chewing and swallowing at different speeds, so you need to use your own judgment as to whether these oat bars are ok for your baby.
If you have a child who is older you may want to try my energy bars or easy oat slice as an alternative to this recipe.
Can I freeze these oat bars?
Short answer, absolutely. Once cooled and sliced store them either short term at room temperature or store them in an airtight container in the freezer to grab out later.
I am an ambassador for Countdown New Zealand this means they support my blog by gifting ingredients for recipe creation. I used their no added sugar apple sauce in this recipe, which was gifted by Countdown NZ.
Healthy Apple Oat Bars
These healthy apple pie oat bars are a soft granola bar, that is low in sugar
Ingredients
- 1 Cup quick cook oats
- 1 Cup rolled oats
- 2Tbsp chia seeds
- 1.5 tsp cinnamon
- 30g melted butter or coconut oil
- 1 cup apple purée or applesauce
- 1-2 Tbsp honey or maple syrup (optional)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix the oats, chia seeds and cinnamon
- Add the melted butter and apple purée, mix to combine
- Line a baking tray (I use a 2ocm sq cake tin)
- Press the mix into the bottom of the baking dish so that it is an even layer, it should be around 1.5-2cm thick
- Bake at 180 degrees celsius or 375 Fahrneheit for 25 mins, it should be firm to the touch but not hard
- Cool and slice into squares
Notes
- Quick cook oats go by a few different names, they are just the rolled oats that are cut a little bit smaller, they aren't flavoured or have added sugar, they will be next to the rolled oats in the supermarket and sometimes are called milk oaties.. but they are bound to have different names in different countries
- I store this in the fridge for up to 5 days, I find it lasts longer in the fridge
- I use white chia seeds in this recipe as I find they are a little prettier, the black ones work but you can see them in the finished product
- The chia seeds do seem to help the product hold together, it is not as successful if you miss them out
- For dairy free use coconut oil instead of butter, I tried liquid oils like olive oil but the product did not bake as well
- If you are using this recipe for a baby under one, then please leave out the honey
- In NZ where I am based as this recipe contains oats I cannot call it gluten free, this is not the case in all countries. This recipe is wheat free
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 16 Serving Size: 1 BarAmount Per Serving: Calories: 76Total Fat: 2.1gSaturated Fat: 1.2gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 1.3mgCarbohydrates: 11.7gFiber: 2.5gSugar: 3.2gProtein: 1.8g
Dear Stacey, Do these bars suit 15 months old baby? My baby is 15 months old, I always found breakfast is hard to prepare. May I please ask if your breakfast recipes are suitable for baby under 2 years old? Thank you very much, warm regards
If your baby has started and is managing finger foods then these should be fine
Dear Mum, are these bar suitable for baby under 2 years old? Thank you
Yes they would be
Yum! These look perfect for a lunchbox option! I usually only buy rolled oats, could I just blitz them up to use instead of buying quick cooking oats as well?
Yes you can, I just find that if I use all rolled oats the final slice is too crumbly
With this apple pie oat bar recipe, are the chia seeds supposed to be soaked first or can they just go in straight from the packet?
Straight in!
My 4 and 6 year olds love these! Thank you!