No-Bake Monster Cookie Bars
Peanut butter, oats, and candy pressed into bars at home. No oven, no crumbs at the bottom of the pack.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 2.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 150
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 12, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Dessert
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Day hike
- Bikepacking
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Smooth peanut butter | 1 cup | replaces the butter from the original; shortening the butter keeps these stable out of a fridge |
|---|---|---|
| Peanut butter baking chips | 2 cups | melted, they set firm and hold the bar together |
| Granulated sugar | 1/4 cup | |
| Quick oats | 3 cups | |
| Mini candy-coated chocolates | 3/4 cup | the shell survives a pack; bare chips do not |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | skip if the peanut butter is salted |
Method
- At home, melt the peanut butter chips in a microwave-safe bowl. One minute on high, stir, then thirty seconds at a time until smooth. They scorch fast, so stop early and stir it out.
- Beat the peanut butter, sugar, and salt together until even, then pour in the melted chips and mix while everything is still warm.
- Work in the oats. The mix will look dry before it looks right. Keep going until every oat is coated.
- Let it cool five minutes, then fold in the candy by hand. Too hot and the shells bleed color.
- Press hard into a parchment-lined 8x8 pan. Pressing hard is what keeps the bars from crumbling in a pack.
- Chill 45 minutes, cut twelve bars, and wrap each one.
The source made drop cookies chilled on a sheet pan. Cookies break. Bars pressed into a pan and cut hold together, so this version trades the shape for durability and drops the butter, which is the only ingredient here that needs a refrigerator. Peanut butter alone carries the fat and does the same binding job at room temperature.
Melted peanut butter chips are the structure. They set up firm as they cool, which is why these hold their edge in a pack instead of turning into a bag of oats and sugar. Candy-coated chocolate is deliberate over plain chips: the shell keeps it from smearing across everything at 85 degrees.
Packing
Wrap bars individually in parchment or wax paper, then stack them in a hard-sided container or a lid pocket. They soften above about 80 F and will slump if they ride loose in a hot pack, so keep them off the sun side.
Variations
- Swap half the oats for crisp rice cereal for a lighter bar with less chew.
- Add 1/4 cup powdered milk to the dry mix for a few more grams of protein per bar.
- Press the mix into a loaf pan for thicker bars if you want fewer, bigger pieces.
https://www.thisisnotdietfood.com/no-bake-monster-cookies