Gooey chocolate chip cookie bars filled with melty chocolate chips and sweet blueberries – Blueberry lovers will go crazy for these!
And they’re the perfect healthy snack for back-to-school!
Pack the bars into a lunchbox, or serve with a cold glass of almond milk for a wholesome after-school snack. They’re also great for summer barbecues or picnics; summer is not over yet! And you can put your own spin on the recipe by using whatever fruit you have on hand—fresh raspberries, strawberries, or cherries would all work nicely here.
These soft chocolate chip blueberry bars are oil-free and give you an option to make them both gluten-free and flourless if you use almond meal or oat flour (rolled oats pulsed in a food processor until they achieve a flour-like texture).
You also have the choice of using almond butter or sunbutter instead of peanut butter here, making the chocolate chip blueberry bars perfect for peanut-free environments or for people with nut allergies.
Chocolate Chip Blueberry Bars – With A Flourless Option
Print This Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1 cup almond butter OR sunbutter
- 3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon, optional
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp flour – you can use spelt, white, sorghum, oat, almond meal, even or buckwheat (50g)
- loosely packed 2/3 cup (60g) brown sugar or coconut sugar – I like Wholesome! Organic Coconut Sugar or Brown Sugar
- loosely packed 2/3 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (90g)
- additional 2 tbsp blueberries
- chocolate chips if desired in the batter, plus 1-3 tbsp for the top
- up to 2 tbsp milk of choice, only if needed
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 F, line an 8-inch baking pan with parchment paper, and set aside. In a bowl, gently heat your almond butter if it’s not already stir-able. Stir in the applesauce and vanilla, and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine baking soda, salt, flour, sugar, and chocolate chips if desired. Pour dry into wet and keep stirring—it will seem dry at first, so you’ll need to break up the nut butter and stop occasionally to scrape it off the spoon. Only if needed, slowly add up to 2 tbsp milk of choice while stirring. Don’t add extra milk; it eventually will get gooey like cookie dough. Add 2/3 cup blueberries and stir very gently so you don’t break the berries. Transfer batter to the prepared pan, smooth down evenly with a spatula or spoon, and press the remaining 2 tbsp blueberries + 1-3 tbsp chocolate chips into the top for presentation. Bake 15 minutes, then let sit at least 20 minutes, during which time they will firm up considerably. They also firm up even more if you let them sit overnight. Due to the perishable nature of the berries, leftovers should be stored in the fridge or freezer after a day.
LINK OF THE DAY:
Hot Fudge Brownie Larabars (no-bake, sugar-free, vegan)
Alexa [fooduzzi.com] says
Wow, Katie! I love this idea! And the fact that you can make them with so many different flours?! Brilliant! Can’t wait to try this chocolate-blueberry combo!
Lacey @ Lace and Wildflowers says
Thanks for thinking of us GF folk! I love this, I’d like to see how blueberries do in the oven when they’re the star of the recipe like this. Thanks for sharing!
Natalie @ The Ravenous Mommy says
Those look amazing!
Margaret Ann @ MAK and Her Cheese says
These look amazing. Blueberries and chocolate is one of my all-time favorite combinations!
Nicole Underwood Gonzalez says
Chocolate & blueberries are two of my fave foods. Together they are heavenly! These bars sound amazing!
sanaz says
Looks amazing!!! Also double yay! So glad to see a recipe without artificial sugars/stevia! I know you always provide the option of traditional sugars including coconut sugar but its just so nice to see a recipe and nutritional content without it!
amanda says
Stevia is actually not an artificial sweetener. I’ve never seen Katie’s posts call for artitifical sweeteners but maybe I am wrong? But I agree that I like when unrefined sugars are given as an option. I didn’t know about coconut sugar until I read this blog and now I use it all the time!
sanaz says
Xylitol is listed in a bunch of the recipes. Like I said, she always gives options but its so nice to have a recipe that needs zero tweaking 🙂
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Hi Sanaz,
Xylitol is actually not an artificial sweetener; I’m not a fan of artificial sweeteners, and you won’t find them in any of my recipes. 🙂 But if you want to stay away from xylitol too, regular sugar or coconut sugar are always listed as options in the recipes and can be used in a 1-to-1 ratio for xylitol. Hope that helps!
Aubrey says
That looks SO good. I love the flourless option:D
Sprinkles of Sweetness says
These looks delicious! I’m going to make them with strawberries, because strawberries + chocolate equals amazing.
amanda says
I just so happened to have fresh blueberries on hand and was thinking of ways to use them up. Opened my email and VOILA! Fate? I decided it was and now I am happily eating a gooey chocolatey snack. It was a good decision 🙂
Gluten Free Babe says
These look awesome. I love the idea of chocolate and blueberries. I can’t get enough of either lately.
Amanda says
I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the massive amount of fresh blueberries I just got. I think I have an answer! I can’t wait to try these!
Lucie says
These bars look so amazing Katie! I love blueberries and I can’t wait to make the almond packed version of these! Thanks for always listing so many alternative ingredients, it makes it so much easier!
Emily says
making these ASAP! They remind me of a combination of my protein blueberry muffins and everything energy bars recipes on my blog! 😀
halfnews says
Just made this for dessert (I used tahini since I didn’t have almond butter) and served it with freshly whipped cream. Delicious!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Thank you so much for trying them!
Kelly says
Oh my goodness, these look and sound amazing, yum!
xx Kelly
Iris says
Oh my… YUM! I just made these with fresh figs in place of the blueberries for I wanted something that was a fig and chocolate combo. Perfect beyond expectation!
Thank you!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
That sounds even better than my version!
Iris says
They are delish! As for “better,” I can only answer that once I make them with blueberries, which I am sure I will do in the not to distant future!
Cassie Tran says
How delicious! Have to try these with my new blueberries!
Thunderbuns says
Ohhh!! These pictures are so good, I’m going to have to try these. I don’t have a ton of blueberries at the moment, but plenty of raspberries, so hopefully that works alright:)
Navie says
OMG!!! Made these over the weekend and they were all gone in 2 days. Super easy and super delicious. They literally melt in your mouth.
Maggie says
Sooooo, technically you could just mix the ingredients together and eat this without baking right? 🙂
Chocolate Covered Katie says
I like this thinking… 🙂
Lisa B says
The new design is awesome especially for someone on mobile (which I do almost all of the time). Just a quick question, when I went on the site I didn’t see the most current post. Wi you have that in the future?
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Current post is back up on the homepage now. What do you think?! 🙂
Jerry says
I have soy flour, can I use that?
Courtney says
I finally made these and they are fantastic! I used cashew butter because that’s what I had on hand, but it worked well. Thank you for your delicious recipes! 🙂
Nadine says
Love your recipes! Can I substitute applesauce? Thanks, Nadine
Maggie says
These are gooey! Haha but love them. Used Spelt. Not too sweet which was nice.