Homemade Cereal Bar Cookies
As I embarked on this whole Get Real journey I knew one of the challenging items in our home was going to be cereal bars. I was aware they contained high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients I couldn’t pronounce but they are an absolute staple in our home, for my son in particular. This would be the son who is EXTREMELY particular about his food, most especially his cereal bars.
Lest you think I am joking, we have to buy the SAME cereal bars with the GREEN shiny package as that is his favorite color. (Seriously. The child picks his breakfast food on the color of the wrapping!) Then to take it even further it has to be served on a paper towel. A WHOLE paper towel. Did you ripe a corner off the towel? PUT IT BACK! It won’t do. No plate, no bowl, not off the table. On a WHOLE paper towel. Then, we must unwrap the cereal bar for him. If there is a CRACK or god forbid, a BREAK the whole morning is ruined. It simply won’t do.
Now before you go lecturing me on giving in to such crazy demands, note that I do not always play along. Most times we force him to eat broken or cracked ones anyway and occasionally we push him on the towel issue. I do admit that I am aware of his sensitivities and on most days I go along with this one. Let’s face it, I am not ready to do battle at 7 am. It would not start the day out on the right foot. And I also choose my battles, more often than not, this is NOT the one I choose.
I digress. So as you can imagine, coming up with a replacement cereal bar was going to be a challenge for me. I started buying Barbara’s cereal bars first as I wanted to see if he would go for a cereal bar that was better for him, without shiny green packaging. If you have never had Barbara’s Apple Cinnamon cereal bars you might not know that their packaging is mostly brown with one small green strip. I presented the cereal bars to him (without the others present) and he actually was convinced to take one and try it. I was impressed. Then he ate it. And LIKED it. Another win for me.
From here I added some of the shiny green cereal bars to the cereal bar basket we have because we needed to use them up and I wanted to see what he would choose. (Yes, I experiment with my kids, don’t you?) What happened next SHOCKED me. He chose the Barbara’s cereal bars over the shiny green one. He continued this until they were gone and all that were left were the shiny green packaged ones. And then he did something I NEVER would have dreamed, he yelled at me because I didn’t have the kind he liked! SCORE! And score one for Barbara’s too!
As much as he loved the Barbara’s they are still expensive. I also wanted to find a way to make them myself. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to make a bar because the only way to do that would be to cut the bars and then my son would view them as “broken” so I decided on a cookie using my muffin tin. I slaved away one day praying over them as I went. :)
I presented them to the kids at breakfast as an alternative to their cereal bars. To my shock and amazement they LOVED them. I mean really LOVED them. As in every time they want a snack now Isaac will say, “I have a good idea, how about a blueberry cereal bar COOOOOOKKKKKIIIIIIEEEE!” And I am all dancing to the kitchen on my happy euphoria cloud. This child and that food item were my greatest challenge and I just defeated Goliath. It is an AMAZING feeling. I hope that your kids love these as much as mine do!
Homemade Cereal Bar Cookies
Author/Source:
Tricia @ Onceamonthmom.com
Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1. 5 cups oats, ground (or oat flour)
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (I used fresh milled hard red wheat)
- 1 cup white flour (I used fresh milled hard white wheat)
- 1 cup sucanat (brown sugar if whole foods isn’t your gig)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1.125 cups (9 ounces) organic jam (I used blueberry and apple)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the ingredients, except the jam, together in a large bowl. It is easiest to do this with your hands. Go ahead, get a little dirty! :) Once it is mixed well together (there should be no dry ingredients dust, but well incorporated) add half of the mixture to each of 18 muffin tins. Press the mixture into the muffin tins creating a bit of a lip as you would for a pie. Add in 1 Tablespoon of jam on top of each “crust”. Next, with the remaining mixture create 18 equal size balls. Smash each of the balls into a circle large enough to cover the top of each “cookie”. Add the disc to the top of the “cookie” and press the edges to meet the sides of the bottom dough. Bake for 20-25 minutes until slightly browned. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and then gently remove to a cooling rack. (I inverted a cookie sheet on top of the muffin tin, flipped the muffin tin and then turned the cookies over to cool a bit longer. Be warned, they are very soft when warm).
A step-by-step tutorial for making these cookies with success!
Gluten Free Dairy Free Version
Freezing Directions:
Follow directions above but allow to cool completely. Add to a gallon freezer bag and freeze. To serve: Allow to thaw overnight or place in a microwave and heat for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Be careful as internal contents will be very warm.
Servings: 18 cookies
Disclosure: I was not compensated nor was I asked to write about Barbara’s cereal bars. My family has found them to be enjoyable and I just thought I would share. :)
Brilliant! I can’t wait to make them. Libbie would live on cereal bars if I let her, but I’ve stopped buying them because of the ingredients. I knew I could make my own, but have been lazy in finding a recipe.
Jessie
I think she would love these and they really aren’t that hard.
I have also been very worried over cereal bars. They are also a staple in our house. I will definately be trying this recipe this weekend.
Good luck, I dare say you won’t be disappointed. Everyone that has had a taste of these has asked me for the recipe in the last week. :)
I am just laughing with you about the food sensitivities ;) I have one that would get upset if you put the green lid on the blue cup. And it wasn’t good enough to just switch lids, No! You had to pour the milk back in the jug, put the jug back in the fridge, and wash out the cup to start over again. And yes, he would watch! We also just had good luck with homemade protein bars (a staple in our house since my kids don’t eat much lunch) so I’m excited to try these! Thanks for the recipe!
I am SO GLAD I am not alone (not that i thought I was). I was hoping there were some moms that could identify with this story. :) They really do make me laugh at their tendencies some times. When I am not pulling my hair out that is.
We always have cereal bars in our house too! I buy the Trader Joe’s bars because they are inexpensive and have better ingredients than other brands I won’t name. But they are still not clean. I will definitely try this recipe! I wonder if it would work pressing some whole blueberries into the dough in place of the jam.
What is Sucanat? Also Where can i find it? I think my kids would love these. I need to make millions of them.
Brown sugar would be the substitute. HA HA HA! Me too! I have made 2 batches the first week and getting ready to do another this week.
I can’t wait to make these for my kids! I have never used sucanat…can brown sugar or white sugar be used instead?
Brown sugar would be the substitute.
Thank you so much for sharing!!! I just pulled mine out of the oven! Can’t wait to try these! I did modify it a bit and added some milled flaxseed as well as some toasted wheat germ and a little more butter to accommodate the extra dry ingredients. I also did not have brown sugar and used organic white so we will see how it turns out! Hopefully it will hold together okay!
That was fast! I can’t wait to hear the verdict of your version. Great additions.
OMG….can I just say–my son is in love with these! The organic sugar worked well and I did not have any problem with them sticking to the muffin tins–I had two–one silicone and one an actual tin. I think though, next time, I will cut back a little on the amount of sugar as well :) but these are awesome! I love this recipe and the pumpkin quinoa muffins for healthy and EASY snacks!
So glad to hear that. I have been asked for the recipe at least half a dozen times in the last week so I am not surprised. :)
Do they *really* come out of the muffin tin? I don’t think I’ve had anything *not* stick in my muffin tins in years, so just sighed and bought a case of the If You Care baking cups. Hmmm… I could make several dozen at a time using the muffin cups and canning rings though… I think I know what the kids and I will be doing when we’re not sick anymore. :D
They really did. I used non-stick muffin pans and I did spray the first batch because I was skeptical.
I have purposely NOT introduced regular cereal bars to my daughter because I knew she would love them and then we would HAVE to have them! But no I think I will introduce these and feel good about it!
Do you think you could substitute honey or maple syrup for some of the sucanat?
I think so but I have never tried it. If you do please report back.
Yes, I think that would work just fine.
I have an Isaac that can be very particular as well, and he is obsessed with cereal bars! It is the first thing he wants in the morning and I am not awake enough to argue with him. Plus he has breakfast once he gets to daycare, so a cereal bar is the perfect amount to tide him over until then. Thanks for the recipe! I’m anxious to make some and see if he’ll accept them in place of his normal bars.
That is too funny about your Isaac, perhaps it is in the name?
I may have to try these. Are they fairly sweet? Sounds like a decent amount of sweetener and I am wondering if I can cut back a bit or not.
You most certainly can cut back. I felt better using sucanat but I wanted to make sure that my kids liked them. I might try cutting it back little by little myself.
Any idea if I could make these with gluten free flour(s). I have a son that loved cereal bars until he had to go gluten free. I bought the gluten free version and he will not try them – he’s a little stubborn too!
I am checking with Angela, our Gluten Free expert, so stay tuned.
Will do!!
Oh, do I love your comment about baking & praying! BTDT! ;-D
Anyone already make the FLOUR translation to GLUTEN FREE flours?
Would love to see the recipe “swapped” with gluten free flours.
:-) Love the idea of the bars!
Thank you!
(Tricia) Angela is going to experiment with these to test the ability to make them gluten free. She didn’t feel comfortable giving recommendations without testing.
I can personally say how delicious these bars… I mean COOOOOOKIES really are. From one mom on a homemade cereal bar journey… THANK YOU!!! Can wait to make them for Levi
These sound YUMMY! Gonna have to try them! We tried the Lara bars, but my family seems to have a sensitivity to dates (our mouths get a burning sensation when we eat them); and I refuse to buy the other kind. My kids would LOVE if I could find a cereal bar type thing that they actually liked! Thanks for the recipe!
Just an idea, but wouldn’t these look like cereal bars if you cooked them in a mini loaf pan? Something to try out?
Yep, you sure could. They still might be a bit large though. I even looked up possible pans to mold and form them in too. They are going over VERY WELL as cookies though.
I’m making these today with my 3 yr old. He loves to cook, and loves cereal bars. He eats one 3 days a week before day care, to tide him over. Can’t wait to see how they turn out…thanks!!
Be sure to let us know! We eat them that often too.
These are delicious. However, I had trouble w/ the mix being too crumbly to make the tops. I know I measured correctly. What else might I have done wrong?
I have to make them again tomorrow so I will try to double check grinding oatmeal before or after measuring.
Do you measure the oats and then grind them into a flour? I made these today and I think they were too dry. I couldn’t get balls to form for tops. So, I just put a spoonful of the mixture on top of each “cookie” and mushed it down with the spoon. I had atleast 2 fall apart and they are all quite crumbly. Definately not an “on the go” treat. Would be very messy. At least the way mine turned out! Is this right?
No I think that I measured afterwards. I can’t remember now. I know I measured before but I thought I did after as well. I have made them several times, several different ways. That is weird. Maybe try more butter?
I finally got around to making these today. I measured before I ground the oats but not after. Mine also were too crumbly. I simply added another TBS of better and it was just about perfect. Probably could have used just a tad more, but they stayed together-mostly.
The yield for the oats should be about the same ground or unground. Glad to know your fix worked. I think the the consensus is, if you have crumbly, just add more of some liquid (or butter).
My son takes cereal bars for mid-morning snack at school…but he prefers the fig filling (think Fig Newtons). How do I make that? I would love to use this recipe instead of buying them! :)
I have seen a fig jam at the health food stores, perhaps try that?
Omg my son is the same way. His favorite color is green. And if it’s broken, forget about it. Cereal bars, bananas it has to be whole or he pitches a fit. Can’t wait to try these. Has anyone tried this with sprouted and/or soaked flour?
I thought measuring oatmeal might be the problem so I measured after also and 1 1/2 cups whole = slightly less than 1 1/2c ground. I used 1/2 real butter & 1/2 “I can’t believe it’s not butter” (the one for baking & cooking). I am wondering if that was not the problem. However, ours did hold together even w/ less than perfect tops and were yummy! I’m looking forward to making some for grandchildren.
Made these this afternoon, and oh my, are they good. They are fairly crumbly, so I may cut back a bit on the flour next time. I used a jar of blackberry fruit spread from Aldi.
These taste so much better than those bars in the green wrapper. Thank you!
The fact that they are crumbly is baffling me. I have made them with 1.5 cups oats and then ground them and 1.5 of ground oats and had no problems. Not sure why others are having crumble problems. Do you mash the ingredients together with your hands?
I didn’t use my hands…it occurs to me that i used a pastry blender and cut in the butter. Just like I would if I were making a crumbly streusel. I will try this again ( and follow directions this time : ) using my hands to see if it sticks together better.
In any case, they are wonderful!
I really do think that mixing it with your hands is the key. You need to work the dough until all the dry ingredients are no longer crumbly.
These are delicious! I was hoping they would really take the place of “bars” in our house. However, they are so crumbly we need to eat them with a fork. Also, I was surprised but they were quite difficult to remove from the pan. I did spray the pan first.
Others have reported this but I have no idea why. Did you mix the dough together with your hands? Maybe try cutting back on some of the dry ingredients to help with this. I have never had them crumbly nor stick to the pan. :(
Of course I will have to make more today :)
I am going to try 1 cup of the oat flour instead.
I did dig in and mix w/my hands. I might ditch the “non stick” spray and actually grease the pans w/crisco.
Glad to know you used your hands. :) Just not sure why they are coming out crumbly. I have not had that problem at all.
I made these a few weeks ago and they were sooooooo crumbly. So crumbly that I actually threw out several because they basically collapsed into sad little heaps *sniff*. I will try adding more butter this time. I did use my hands to squish the butter into the flour.
Did you watch the video? Make sure to use butter and not margarine and that it isn’t too softened. And adding more or applesauce will help.
I can’t tell if you used mini muffin tins or regular sized?
I used regular size muffin tins.
I am so excited to try these on my picky eater! To say she is picky is to say that Howard Hughes was a tiny bit compulsive! :) I am pretty sure I can sell the cookie concept to her, plus it is healthy and low sugar, a win-win in my book! Thanks for sharing!
If it can pass my critic, I am sure that it can pass yours!
Mine were too crumbly as well. Some held together fine, but most of them crumbled and stuck to the pan. They tasted good, but I will have to serve most of them to my kids in bowls with a spoon. If I make them again, I will try cutting back on some of the flour I guess.
I made these Sunday, & instead of using the regular tray, I used a mini muffin tin since I only have 1….I’m frusterated because they weren’t done, but the bottoms are burned…..the regular tin was like hockey pucks……..what did I do wrong?!?!?
I’d love to make these because I’m certain they’d be a hit! Did I make the ‘batter’ too thick in the tins? Tia!!
It is hard to say what went wrong as there are several possibilities. It sounds like perhaps you cooked them too long for the regular muffin tins. Or maybe your oven is running hot?
Very yummy! Well, the cereal bar lover loved them – the fussy spouse doesn’t like cereal bars so i didn’t expect he would! :) raspberry was better than apple butter (too sweet) . Next time – chocolate chip or nutella? My oats and flours were way dry and i read the posts about crumbly, so i added 2tb. Water when it wasn’t sticking together. They popped out of the silcone muffin tins just peachy! And then i ate 2…. I’m going to keep them in the freezer so i can’t eat them all!
[...] Cereal Bar Cookies (breakfast) [...]
I am feeding these to my 10 month old as we speak!!! Such a great recipe, thank you so much for sharing!! I cut the brown sugar in half (jury is still out in our house as to what sweetener we feel good about), used 2 cups of white whole wheat flour (that’s all I had), and blueberry jam….DELICIOUS!! I also skimped on the filling because I was afraid they would fall apart….next time will go with the whole tablespoon as they cooked up PERFECTLY! Thanks again, will definetly be making these weekly!
My 2.5 year old and I made these today. We used an 8×8 pan and cut them into bars. They were super crumbly (eat with a fork crumbly), but delicious. We filled them with a fig butter I found at our Trader Joe’s, and they tasted like homemade Fig Newtons. Yum!
Interesting. I am making a video on them and posting it this week. I can’t tell what is making them so crumbly so the only thing i can do is create a reference video!
I am making these this morning. They were very crumbly but my extremely picky kids loved them. I am hoping they will replace poptarts in my house. I am going to try a batch with nutella and see what happens. The boys love chocolate poptarts so maybe this will be a healthier alternative. :)
Yes, I was thinking that Nutella might go nice in them too! Maybe try that out if you need a chocolate treat!
Hate to be a buzzkill, but Nutella has some artificial ingredients in it. Just an FYI. There is an all natural kind I saw in the store, but I can’t remember the name of it. I’ve never bought it. I know lots of people seem to like Nutella, not realizing it is not a natural product.
Not a buzzkill at all. :) And these are definitely in our whole foods category BUT we do have a bunch of non-whole foodies who have been doing them too. :) And I hadn’t looked at Nutella yet so that is good advice. I’m guessing a chocolate piece or too would be just as tasty.
Justine’s brand makes a lovely Chocolate Almond butter. We can’t do protein bars or very many additives so I buy the little packets as “energy bars”. I’ve not tried the Hazelnut but I’m sure it’s yummy. Not as creamy as Nutella but I don’t think you would ever notice here.
http://www.justinsnutbutter.com/products.php: Ingredients: Dry Roasted Hazelnuts, Dry Roasted Almonds, Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar, Organic Cocoa, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Palm Fruit Oil, Natural Vanilla, Sea Salt.
Nutella isn’t as bad as many products(though it is VERY high in sugar): INGREDIENTS: SUGAR, PALM OIL, HAZELNUTS, COCOA, SKIM MILK, REDUCED MINERALS WHEY (MILK), LECITHIN AS EMULSIFIER (SOY), VANILLIN: AN ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR.
For us, the Whey would probably be a problem (glutamates, http://stroyan.net/lisasblog/) but we’re quite sensitive.
There is a wonderful website called the Gracious Pantry that has a clean recipe for homemade Nutella spread- http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating-nutella/
OMG. Just made these – SO DELICIOUS.
I love this idea, but a cup of butter seems like a LOT for 18 cookies. Wow.
For the ones wanting a gluten free version, I made these last night for my wheat sensitive son. I only used 1 cup of the oat flour, and then 2 cups of Pamela’s bread flour (what I had on hand at the moment). They turned out amazing! Of course, story of my life…
wheat sensitive kid didn’t like them, but the two non-sensitive ones loved them!
I made these today with some modifications:
1 cup ground flax
1 cup whole wheat flour
No sugar
1 tbsp. Cinnamon
Oats, Butter the same as above. In all honest, I forgot the sugar, didn’t do it on purpose. BUT it turned out amazing. I didn’t even realize it after I ate one until I looked at the bag of sugar…unopened. Think the cinnamon and flax gave it great flavor and are both good for you! They popped right out of the muffin tin, dough mixed great in my kitcheaid! Not crumbly at all. The true taste test will be Ally in the morning!
Ally LOVED these- making a second batch today per her request. She didn’t want cereal this week! Thanks for the recipe.
Awe, that is great! Glad they are such a hit.
[...] Bean Dip Homemade Cereal Bar Cookies – freezer friendly Basic Homemade Cliff [...]
I have made these several times and my husband I love them!!! They are now our daily snack for work. My kids don’t like them, but that’s because they are so picky they won’t even try them. :)
The first couple batches were awesome and the second couple of batches were hard to work with, and the dough was crumbly. I think, however, I have found out why. I never use butter (we are all lactose intolerant), so the first time I substituted with sticks of Imperial vegetable oil spread. The second batches were a different brand of butter spread (Kroger). I did some research and found out that the first spread contains significantly less oil than the second (around 53 or 60% versus 80%). So, I’m going to switch back to the original spread.
Yes, that is a theory of mine as well. I’m glad you can help us confirm it.
I just made a new batch with Imperial spread, which is 53% vegetable oil, and the dough was perfect. It was so easy to work with.
Also, I realized that each of the 36 small dough balls is slighly over 1 tablespoon (packed). This makes it easy if you don’t want to separate the balls first.
Thanks again for this great recipe!!
Hello Tricia,
I made it once almost the way you said (we don’t have white flour in our house at all anymore so I used 2 cups of whole wheat) but it was too crumbly. When I made it a second time I changed the type of sugar that was used. I used 3/4 Agave syrup instead. This made a nice dough which was a little to sticky. Next time I will try it with just 1/2 cup of agave syrup or honey. We also stuff ours with homemade unsweetened apple sauce and raisins. I never was a fan of jam’s and jellies. They freeze well. Mine also made 33 instead of 18 so maybe I just made the crust thinner. I did not like the pressing so I rolled it out and then used circle cookie cutter and then put it in my muffin tins, for me this was quicker. Also it works in a heart shaped muffin tin as well in case any body wants to try.
Great advice!
Hi, I made these on the weekend with my 2-year-old son. We had a great time squishing the dough. I traded the white flour for a cup of ground flax and used only 3/4 cup sugar. They were a hit, but really sweet (gonna cut the sugar next time, maybe change to honey and cut the butter too). Some had mixed berry jam (erupted and left hollow)and some strawberry jam (worked great). I also added a bit of natural peanut butter to the bottom of a couple and strawberry jam, these were my FAVORITE. My picky son didn’t like them at first but once his cousin and friend ate them he’s been eating them since. This could become a habit in our house!
I made these this morning, and they are great!
Love, LOVE, LOVE these bars!! We have switched them up in various ways. I used half margarine/half peanutbutter instead of all margarine, this last time. It worked great! I’ve used jams and jellies. Blackberry, Strawberry and raspberry. I also add vanilla protein powder to the mix and you wouldn’t even know it’s in there! Thank you so much for this recipe! We’ve had alot of fun with it!
I love hearing all of the variations. The sky is the limit. Keep your adaptions coming!
I’ve modified the original recipe a tad today. 1/2 cup brown sugar because the preserves can be a bit sweet and 1/2 TBSP Lemon extract instead of vanilla. (I always add vanilla protein powder, one scoop) I also made these in bar form. Fingers crossed their in the oven right now! I think I’ll try almond extract next time…with strawberry preserves. Yep, your recipe is a WINNER in our house!!
Report back for sure. Glad they like them!
These are so yummy! I substituted applesauce for half of the butter, and they tasted great and still held together well.
That is really good to know!
Love this! Breakfast is such a challenge at my house, and I don’t even have any kids to worry with! More often than not, all I ever get is coffee. Having these in the house will solve that problem! Thanks for sharing.
I made these for a VERY finicky 2 year old. She has some issues chewing so she loves the texture of cereal bars and these were a*hit*. Thanks! After the arsenic in the cereal bars headlines, I was thinking of making my own and this recipe is awesome. Thanks!
So glad you like them! Can you give me a link to the arsenic in cereal bars headline, I would like to read.
This is the article: http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/16/10425025-high-arsenic-levels-found-in-organic-foods-baby-formula
BY the way, I am on my third batch of the cereal bars. My daughter, who has CP and doesn’t have the best diet, is inhaling them and I made some changes. I swapped one stick of butter with apple sauce and 1/2 a cup of the white flour with wheat germ AND added cup up zucchini with the jam. She doesn’t even notice….
That is great. I love your adaptions too. I am thinking of trying some myself.
Tricia – I added some minced carrot in with the jam and in place of one stick of butter, I put in a jar of pureed sweet potato baby food. It came out a little too dry, so I am thinking of adding another jar of sweet potato (or maybe I wont be lazy and just added a mashed sweet potato). But it didn’t phase my daughter, she is still enjoying them, carrots and sweet potatoes and all.
I left out the butter and used the equivalent amount of unsweetened applesauce instead. It will be a little sticky to work with but is super yummy and without all the fat.
I love this recipe! I’ve changed it to just have fresh fruit in the mix (blueberries, strawberries, whatever’s on sale…) so that I can pack them down into a cake pan and bake them. (It makes less stickiness with my 18 month old.) i also use just whole wheat flour and it seems to work just as well. They are delicious.
Thank you for such a fantastic recipe and giving me the ability to save some money, since my hubby eats them for on-the-go snacks, too!
That is great to hear. I can’t wait to try them with some fresh fruit this summer as well!
[...] recipe comes from Once A Month Mom, head on over there to see her extra directions. Here is her [...]
Was wondering if spelt flour could replace whole wheat
I don’t see why not, I would love to hear the results if you try it.
So extremely glad I found this recipe! I am glad to know that my child (and husband for that matter) are not the only difficult ones to please! My husband only eats fruit in cereal bar form! Like you, I pick and choose those battles, though I lose most of those with my husband.
HA! I hope these continue to work for you.
[...] Cereal Bars [...]
Made these and mine were crumbly as well but delicious and everyone loved them. I was wondering if adding 2 eggs might be a good solution? I’m going to try this the next time I make them.
Did you by chance watch the video? I haven’t ever tried egg, not sure that would be good – 2 eggs would definitely be too much, if you try it, try it with only one. The video should help though.
I will watch the video and see if that helps. I’m an avid baker so I can’t understand why these didn’t come out.
I will have to tell you that we must have similar taste buds because I generally like all the recipes you choose. I was checking out some other sites and I haven’t liked their recipes at all.
These were so delicious that I almost didn’t share them with my kids!! Then when I finally did share, I had to hide them under lock and key because I was afraid my daughter was going to eat the whole batch at one time! They were super easy and the kids really enjoyed helping to squish the butter into the flour. Mine weren’t crumbly at all but I took extra care to really press them into the muffin tin good or I think they could have turned out differently. I may try them with some homemade apple butter, yummy!! Anyway, thanks for the wonderful recipe. As a mother of 4 I am really enjoying the OAMM website.
Tried these last night and they turned out delicious. it took a lot of work, but after awhile, they did get all fully incorporate, so I wonder if people didn’t work the dough long enough.
I think next time I’m going to try less jam in the middle. It was too sweet. And maybe try bars, though it might be difficult to get the top layer rolled out. But it’s a delicious recipe!
[...] Homemade Cereal Bar Cookies [...]
I have a Ty that is just like your Isaac. He melts when his cereal bar breaks in half. I can’t wait to try these!! Thank you for sharing your recipe :)
I just made these today, my DIL made them on Friday and told me how wonderful they are. Can I say wow? I don’t have any little ones at home anymore but the big kid loves them!
Thanks for this recipe. I discovered you via Pinterest. My kiddo also loves cereal bars, but I will only buy the TJ’s version when I can get my hands on them. I’ve tried a few other recipes, but I haven’t found a great one so far. I REALLY like the idea of baking them in muffin tins. What a great idea! I’ll give these a shot over the weekend. Thanks!
Made them tonight! Super easy and they even came out of my muffin tin (I deserve an award for that one!) I think mine were more like muffins than cookies, but they taste and smell wonderful! This one is a keeper! Might try the apple sauce in place of 1/2 the butter next time.
I made these the other night for my twins and they love them! I only managed to get 12 out of the batch, but my guess is I used a little too much per muffin (I’ll get it right next time!). I used turbanado sugar in place of sucanet/brown sugar and they came out delicious. So easy…I will be making many, many more! I hate buying the store bought ones since we go through them so fast. This will be a money saver.
I had read all of the directions, read all of the comments and watched the video prior to attempting to make these for the first time. However, my “dough” was still super crumbly right from the start and I could tell that it wasn’t going to turn out right, despite the extremely thorough hand-kneading and following the recipe to a “t”. They crumbled and cracked when being pressed into the pan, the shaped rounds cracked both while shaping and while pressing them together. Once baked, they crumbled and cracked further. I wanted to love these — I think my Daughter liked them, but considering the amount of work (time) I put into these and how they turned out, I don’t know if I will try again. Thanks for the recipe though!
You might try a little more moisture. Some have had great success adding more applesauce to act as more of a glue.
I made these the other week, just about to make some more. Last time I had forgotten to get my butter out of the fridge so I softened it in the microwave, it was almost melted, but the mix held together well and the result was not crumbly. My son loves them!
I just made these a few days ago and they tasted like i was eating a stick of butter. Kids didn’t like them either. Any ideas? I can see why they would have a buttery taste from the amount you put in and the other ingredients aren’t as strong in terms of flavors. I saw someone put in applesauce for 1/2 the butter. Did it change the taste? I was really hoping these would work for quick school snacks. Thanks for any advice.
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Just made these for my one year old son, he ate 2 cookies in the first sitting (a ton for a 1 year old). Also wanted to let people know that I used butter flavored crisco instead of butter because my son is allergic to milk and i also added 2 tablespoons of soy milk because my dough wasn’t balling well. i overcooked first batch and they were hard as rocks (maybe because of crisco?) but I took the second batch out at 18 minutes and they were perfect! My son really, really loves these and it’s very hard to find really tasty things for him because of the milk allergy. So happy I don’t have to spring $4 a box for the plum organics kind anymore.
No need to out wax between before freezing ?? How long do they stay fresh in a container on the counter? ;)
I don’t put wax in between them but I also flash freeze them a bit before hand.
These have become a staple in my house. My daughter is 18 months and has become a little picky, but she LOVES these! My husband I love them as well. It’s like eating the crumb topping off an apple crisp, it’s hard to not eat the whole batch at once! :)
What’s really great is that you can take the recipe here and make changes according to what you have on hand or what your flavor preferences are. I didn’t have any whole wheat flour once, so I used 1 1/2 cups all purpose and 1/2 cup of ground flax seed. Another time I had a craving for chocolate, so I made these in a mini-muffin pan and put 3-4 chocolate chips in the middle of each one. SO yummy! I can’t thank you enough for this recipe, it’s the BEST!
Ok. These are in the oven right now. My dough was crumbly too so I just added water until it came together. No big deal. I think it was the type of butter I used. Anyway, got all the ingredients mixed together, went to the fridge for jelly and it was GONE. My husband has apparently been sneaking PB&J’s when he feels deprived again. LOL. So I pureed fresh strawberries, a banana, and a half teaspoon of sugar and used that. I also made my cookie thicker since the puree mixture is more watery than jam and will bake into the dough a bit. So excited to try these!!! I will comment again if they don’t turn out and the puree is a bad idea. I’ll probably cry too. ;)
Oh wow, you had some real obstacles to overcome! I do hope they turned out.
Making these now for my 20 month old and excited to see and taste the finished product. I added applesauce for moistness which worked great and added some wheat germ. I used homemade strawberry jam.
Yay it was a hit! Mine didn’t cook all the way so I’ll cook them more than 20 minutes next time. I did use 2 sticks butter like the video showed but next time I may cut it down some since I’m adding the applesauce for moisture too. Delicious!
These were a HUGE hit!! Thank you SO much for this recipe! The only modification I made was to use brown sugar (as was suggested) and I mixed with my hands. Everything turned out perfectly! I think the key is to let them cool (as the recipe states!) before removing them from the muffin tins.
Do you think quinoa or flax would work in place of the oats? I have a little one who is sensitive to oats, but I think my kids would love these.
I’m not sure why not but I haven’t tried it. I would think flax might be the best alternative.