These whole wheat oatmeal fudge bars are easy to make, and full of gooey fudgy chocolate. They’re so good, you won’t believe they’re made with whole ingredients!
HEALTHY BAKING THAT ACTUALLY TASTES GOOD
Growing up, my mother did a lot of baking with us. As we scooped and leveled and poured ingredients, we talked about life while eagerly anticipating the magic of seeing a seemingly random bunch of foods turn into something delicious. In typical mother daughter fashion, our relationship had a lot of bumps and hardships, but when were baking, everything was right in the world.
I want to carry on that baking tradition with my own children, but I also really want to instill a love for healthy food in them. So before our kids were born, we made the switch from white processed sugars and flours, to whole ingredients. It took lots of trial and error, but now I can adapt almost any recipe into a healthier clean eating recipe that doesn’t cause a spike (and then drastic drop) in blood sugar.
The best part about healthy dessert recipes, like these whole wheat oatmeal fudge bars, is that they still taste decadent and comforting, and my kids don’t know the difference.
WHOLE WHEAT OATMEAL FUDGE BARS
Making these bars with Corban was a lot of fun, especially adding the crumble topping. We played hide and seek with the chocolate, trying to help all of the chocolate hide under some crumble.
“There’s some chocolate!” he’d shout gleefully, and quickly drop a little ball of oats, pecans, whole wheat flour, sucanat, and butter into the spot.
In fact, he was having so much fun, someone decided whatever we were doing sounded more interesting than the cars she was playing with and came over to help.
Larkin in just 14 months old, but she is already becoming quite the little baker and loves learning from her big brother.
She also loves seeing mama stand on the table to take pictures!
The beauty of these whole wheat oatmeal fudge bars is that the bottom crust and the crumble topping are the same, so you don’t have to mix them separately. The only difference is that the crust is pressed into the pan, and the topping is crumbled on top.
After pressing the crust in, a thick chocolate ganache is spread over it to give that ooey gooey chocolaty filling. I added a little coconut oil into the ganache which helps it firm up when stored in the fridge, making it great for grab and go snacking. Our coconut oil is expeller pressed with very little coconut taste, but this would also be great with a coconut oil with stronger flavor.
If you don’t like (or can’t eat) coconut oil, you can substitute butter instead.
I lined my pan with parchment paper, making sure the edges stuck out past the oatmeal fudge bars, so that it would be really easy to pull the whole thing out at once. If you haven’t used parchment paper before, I HIGHLY recommend it! It keeps your food from sticking, and makes clean up a breeze. That’s super important to this busy working mama.
Once the bars are done cooking, pull them from the pan and let them cool completely before cutting them into squares. You can use a knife to cut them, or I really like using a scraper chopper tool for bars like this.
Corban inspected his bar between bites, looking to identify the different ingredients he had put into them. Chocolate was definitely his favorite.
“This is good chocolate mama!”
I hope you enjoy making these whole wheat oatmeal fudge bars with your family as much as I did. Please let us know if you try them! You can also snap a picture of your kids making them and tag it with #MiniChefMondays and #EatingRichly, and we’ll be sure to check it out.
Do you have a favorite family recipe you grew up making?
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Fudge Bars Recipe
These whole wheat oatmeal fudge bars are easy to make, & full of gooey fudgy chocolate. They're so good, you won't believe they're made with whole ingredients! Feel free to substitute butter for the coconut oil if needed. Adapted from Food.com.
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups soft white whole wheat flour
- 1 cup sucant, dehydrated cane juice
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 cup salted butter, softened
- 1 cup pecan halves, chopped
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix oats, flour, sucanat and salt.
- Add butter and mix until crumbly.
- Stir in pecans.
- Set aside 1-1/2 cups for topping.
- Press remaining into a 13x9 parchment lined baking pan.
- In a saucepan combine milk, chips and coconut oil; cook and stir over low heat until melted.
- Spread over crust in pan.
- Sprinkle with reserved topping.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, until edges golden are brown.
- Let cool completely before removing from pan and cutting into squares.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2Serving Size:
2 dozenAmount Per Serving: Calories: 241Saturated Fat: 8.4gCholesterol: 37.02mgSodium: 135.35mgCarbohydrates: 99.46gFiber: 7.44gSugar: 12.02gProtein: 2.43g
I am hosting Mini Chef Mondays along with 8 fabulous bloggers! Read how Mini Chef Mondays started, plus how to link up!
Join our facebook group to find even more recipes and share recipes too!
Be sure to check out each of their Mini Chef posts as well!
- S’mores Stacks // Courtney’s Sweets
- Pesto Made with Peas // Momma Lew
- Strawberry Mango Italian Ice // Baby Loving Mama
- Chicken and Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich // We’re Parents
- Whole Wheat Oatmeal Fudge Bars Recipe // Eating Richly Even When You’re Broke
- Breakfast Naan Pizza // Giggles, Gobbles and Gulps
- Slow Cooker Bean Tortellini Soup // Vegging at the Shore
- Healthy Lunches Kids Can Prepare Themselves // O’Boy! Organic
- Candy Pizza // Can’t Google Everything
Wow! Those look so so good! I’m definitely making this very soon!
Mmm these look delicious!
Diana, these look amazing! I’m not sure that I could stop at just one though. Trying these for sure!
Question- I looked for sucant at my grocery store and couldn’t find it (or don’t know what it’s called in German) can I use regular sugar with the same results?