Oat Fudge Bars - Gluten-Free

Gluten-Free Oat Fudge Bars - A copy-cat recipe for your favorite Starbuck's treat. Dense fudge surrounded by a yummy oat cookie bar. Keep reading for an egg-free option for this popular snack bar 😍 !

I tried to convince the kids that I made these bars from dirt and twigs.

Sometimes my kids are wary of things I make that are covered in chocolate. I've been accused more than once of hiding the flaxseed under the chocolate chips.
And even though I had no intention of making something "healthy" today, these Oat Fudge Bars were just too good to not share. Don't judge me. I just wanted a few stashed in the freezer for me, for later, for when a chocolate craving hits but eating chocolate chips out of the bag just isn't good enough.

(Don't even try to tell me you don't eat chocolate chips out of the bag.)

Making these treats gluten-free

So here is a fun fact. I made these gluten-free. Not that gluten-free makes them healthier or anything. They are still full of sugar and butter... but I used oat flour instead of all-purpose. And it worked like a charm. These are totally worth making if you need a gluten-free treat. If gluten-free is not your thing, go ahead and use all-purpose flour instead, in equal amounts.

If you don't have oat flour:

I get it, it may not be a staple in your pantry, you have a couple of other options:

• Use all-purpose flour in the same amount as the oat flour. One for one. Of course if you all purpose flour, these oat bars will no longer be gluten-free.
• Use your favorite one-to-one gluten-free flour blend. I like Bob's Red Mill for this type of recipe. But if you need these treats to be gluten-free, use your favorite gluten-free flour.
• Make your own oat flour!

How to make Oat Flour

Yes you can! And it is incredibly simple. 😍

I use my Blendtec to make oat flour all the time. A high-speed blender will make quick work out of this task. But a regular blender will work too -- it will just take a bit longer.

Place large flake oats into the base on your blend and blend for 20 seconds to one minute or so. You have flour when the oats have turned into a very fine powder. It should feel like flour, not coarse or gritty. That's it!

Tip: One cup of oldfashioned, large flaked oats will make just over 1 cup of oat flour.

Tip: Make extra! Oat flour will keep in an air-tight container in your pantry for about 3 months. As a whole grain flour, oat flour has natural oils that do make the flour susceptible to spoilage. If you want to keep it longer than 3 months, it stores nicely in the freezer 6-8 months.

More recipes that use oat flour:

• Oil-free Seed Crackers {Gluten-free, vegan}
• Pineapple Coconut Muffins {Gluten-free, vegan}
• Almond and Cherry Granola Bars {Gluten-free, vegan}

A few more notes about this recipe:

To make a dense and fudgy filling, I used Eagle Brand condensed milk, similar to this fudge recipe.

You will want to save this recipe for the holidays and school bake sales. This recipe is nut-free too so great for school treats. Its food allergy-friendly and school safe.

You can make the oatmeal cookie crust without eggs if you have an allergy or just prefer to bake without eggs. See notes below.

You can use a dairy-free butter like Earth Balance or other vegan baking buttery sticks in place of the butter. However I have not tried a dairy free-fudge in this recipe. It might work - but I have not tried it.

Replacing eggs with flaxseed in baked goods

I've used ground flaxseeds in this recipe in place of the eggs. For each egg (2 in this case) use the following:

TO MAKE A FLAX EGG you need:

• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
• 3 tablespoons warm water

So in tihs recipe you will need 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed and 6 tablespoons warm water.

Whisk flaxseed and warm water together in a small bowl and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes. It will thicken as it sits.

Use as the recipe directs, add when eggs are called for.

Flax eggs work well in recipes for baked goods that call for 1 or 2 eggs only. Any more than 2 eggs and the texture and stability of the recipe will be impacted by this substitution.

Flax eggs work best for cakes, cookies especially those with whole grains. You can see from the photo below that the flaxseed is visable n the batter before I added the oatmeal. So this method will not work as well for more delicate pastries.

This recipe makes a big batch - which means there is lots to share with a class, divide up into smaller containers for bake sales or bring to a potluck. Keep this recipe handy for the next time someone needs to bring treats to school.

Yes these are just like the oat fudge bars you can get a Starbucks. You're welcome

3.84 from 61 votes

Oat Fudge Bars – Gluten-Free

A gluten-free copy-cat recipe for Starbucks' Oat Fudge bars

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time35 mins

Servings: 24 squares

Calories: 327kcal

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter softened (you can use a dairy-free butter like Earth Balance)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup white granulated sugar
• 2 eggs you can use flax-eggs for an egg-free treat. See post for more details.
• 3 cups large flake old fashioned oats
• 2 cups oat flour alternately use all-purpose flour or make your own - see post for details
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 300 ml can Eagle Brand Sweetened condensed milk
• 12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon butter

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line a 8 x 12 baking dish with parchment paper
• In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, add butter and sugar and beat together on medium speed until well blended and creamy. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy.
• In a medium sized bowl stir together oats and oat flour, baking soda and salt.
• Add oat mixture to butter and eggs mixture and beat together until well combined and it has formed a sticky dough.
• Reserve ⅓ of the dough and set aside. Press the remaining dough into the bottom of the baking dish. Dampen your hands with a bit of water to help press the dough flat into the baking dish. This is sticky dough. Press the dough slightly up the sides of the dish to make a bit of a ridge to catch the fudge topping
• To make the fudge: in a small sauce pan combine Eagle Brand condensed milk and chocolate chips over medium low heat. Stir until chocolate chips have melted and mixture is smooth and creamy. Remove from heat and stir in the tablespoon of butter and the vanilla.
• Evenly spread the fudge over top of the dough in the baking dish. Try to leave a half inch or so around the sides.
• Take small clumps of the dough previously set aside and press into flat shapes and lay on top of the fudge. Don't worry about covering the entire top, you want to see some fudge peaking through.
• Bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes. The oats on top should be slightly golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Notes

If you don't have oat flour you can use all-purpose flour in its place.

Or check post for instructions on how to make your own oat flour.

You can make this recipe without eggs and substitute flax-see eggs instead. See post for more details on how to do this. Note however, this will not make the recipe vegan as there are still dairy ingredients in the bars.

 

Calories: 327kcal (16%) Carbohydrates: 41g (14%) Protein: 5g (10%) Fat: 16g (25%) Saturated Fat: 9g (56%) Cholesterol: 38mg (13%) Sodium: 214mg (9%) Potassium: 174mg (5%) Fiber: 3g (13%) Sugar: 26g (29%) Vitamin A: 309IU (6%) Calcium: 63mg (6%) Iron: 2mg (11%)

Trish | The infinebalance Food Blog

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