PB&J Bars
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Published Sep 01, 2017, Updated Jan 07, 2024
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These PB&J Bars are a take on the classic sandwich we all know and love. Made with protein-packed peanut powder, oat flour, organic jam and coconut oil, you can feel good about enjoying these bars whenever you please. This post is sponsored by Kroger. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I’ve made plenty of crumble bars before (see here and here), but for some reason I never thought to make PB&J Bars — until now.
I honestly find this hard to believe because we’re huge PB&J fans over here at EBF. I ate a PB&J sandwich almost every single day for lunch throughout elementary, middle and high school. Isaac’s childhood was similar and to this day he still makes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch or a snack. You know, just your causal sandwich snack.
Because of this, I’ve come up with so many PB&J inspired recipes including a PB&J Smoothie (this baby is SO good), PB&J Trail Mix (such a fun combo if you can find the peanut butter chips), PB&J Overnight Oats (perfect high-protein breakfast) and PB&J Protein Bites.
And today I’m adding these PB&J Bars to the list. They’re like a standard crumb bar only made healthier with good-for-you ingredients. I think they’d make an awesome lunch box addition, but only if your kiddo goes to a school where peanuts are still allowed. (Do peanut-friendly schools even exist anymore? Clearly, I’m not a mama so I’m out of the loop.) If peanuts aren’t an option at school, just pack one in your own lunch box and save a few for the kids to enjoy as an after-school snack.
I’m sure most of you reading realized this already, but I just want to point out that these aren’t just for kids. Truth be told they’ve only be taste-tested by adults but everyone LOVED them so I’m sure kids will like them too.
What I love about them is that they’re incredibly easy to whip up. We’re talking one bowl, 8 ingredients and only about 15 minutes of hands-on prep time.
I found everything I needed for this recipe at my local Kroger and all the items (besides the baking soda) are from their Simple Truth line, which features natural and organic products. All of the Simple Truth items are free from 101 different artificial preservatives and ingredients including things like high-fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated fats & oils, sucralose, aspartame and parabens.
For the peanut butter flavor, I used the Simple Truth protein-packed peanut power. If you’re unfamiliar, peanut powder (or peanut flour) is made from crushed, defatted peanuts so it has a ton of peanut flavor and protein, but it’s lower in fat and calories. It’s been popular among health food enthusiasts (i.e. people like me) for a few years now. You can use it as a peanut butter substitute, just by adding liquid to the powder, but I primarily use it as to give a peanut butter flavor (and protein boost) to things like smoothies, sauces, overnight oats and pancakes. (Check out my peanut flour protein pancakes here.)
Peanut powder also works for baking and these PB&J bars are a great example. They have a ton of peanut butter flavor, just from the peanut powder! And 9 grams of protein per square.
Of course, for the photos I added a little drizzle of actual peanut butter, but that’s totally optional. 🙂
If you make these PB&J bars be sure to leave a comment and star rating letting me know how they turn out. Your feedback is so helpful for the EBF team and other readers!
PB&J Bars
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups oat flour
- 1 cup Simple Truth Peanut Powder
- 1/2 cup coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 egg, whisked
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 3/4 cup organic strawberry jam, store-bought or homemade*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a square baking dish (8×8 or 9×9 will work) with parchment paper or spray with a little coconut oil non-stick spray.
- Mix oat flour and peanut flour in a large mixing bowl. Add coconut sugar, coconut oil, whisked egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Mix well.
- Measure out 1/2 cup of the dough and set aside. Press the rest of the dough evenly into the baking dish using your hands.
- Add strawberry jam on top and spread evenly to cover the dough.
- Crumble remaining dough over the strawberry jam layer and press everything down lightly.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until the bars a golden brown. Remove from oven and allow bars to cool in the baking dish before slicing and removing.
- Once cool, slice into 9-12 bars and enjoy.
- Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to 3-5 days. We like them straight from the fridge.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Lady, you are killing it! I printed your tuna curry bowl recipe and have it incorporated for next week, and now I’ll be making these! How fitting because I just used our powdered peanut butter again for the first time yesterday after months of not considering it. I have what we need!
You are so sweet, Kori! I can’t wait to hear what you think of the tuna curry and these bars. It’s so funny that you mention not using peanut powder in a while. The same thing happened to me. I sort of forgot about peanut powder until recipe testing these bars. But now I have the container in the pantry and I’ve been adding to to everything again!
I’ll certainly let you know! Also, totally random, but I saw that you follow Shannon Werner on Instagram. She’s actually dating my brother in law, Matt’s oldest brother. Small world, huh? 🙂
Awesome, I will be driving down south for long weekend and will grab some peanut powder to make this recipe. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Of course!! These are perfect for a road trip!
These look AMAZING!
We use the peanut powder from Kroger all the time in smoothies! My teenage son has renamed it “nut dust” (insert dorky Beavis chuckle). Question: can I use regular sugar instead of coconut sugar?
Hi Deb! Oh my gosh, I love it! You sound like me when I make walnut tacos once and call them nut-meat tacos. You really can’t help but laugh. And yes, you can use regular sugar instead of coconut sugar!
These sound amazing! And a great use for powdered peanut butter. I’m glad you can find that all the time now.
Same!! I love being about to find it at Kroger too. So convenient.
Just spent the last SEVERAL minutes scrolling through all your recipes and they all look AMAZING! Can’t wait to add some of these to my meal plans!
Thank you so much, Chelsea. You’ll have to let me know which ones you try!! <3
Is peanut powder the same as peanut flour? I bought some peanut flour a few weeks ago and I’m wondering if it would work in this recipe…
It’s pretty much the same thing! Sometimes peanut powder is peanut flour with a little added sugar and/or salt. Peanut flour is usually plain, ground defatted peanuts. Long story short, you can use peanut flour in this recipe instead of peanut powder! 🙂
Thanks! I just went back and read the whole post before the recipe…if I would have done that to begin with I would have known the answer. ???? I am definitely going to make these!! What a GREAT recipe idea!!
So I made these last week but didn’t have enough oat flour…I used about 1/2 C of brown rice flour to fill the void. I also just used the preserves I had opened which was peach. I’m guessing the rice flour changed things a little as they are pretty crumbly; yours look like they’re holding together better. And the peach was, meh. Next time I’ll use strawberry like the recipe says to! They are good but next time I’ll make sure I have what the recipe calls for. ????
Oh shoot! I bet the change from oat flour to brown rice flour is what made them a little crumbly. Next time I’d just add a little more coconut oil if they seem dry. And definitely do the strawberry. It was so delicious!!
These were simply SCRUMPTIOUS! And a perfect little nibbly goodness after lunch (or whenever :)!!). I did add some quick oats to the reserved topping cuz I just love lots of crumbly stuff on my crumb bars. Next time (cuz that will happen soon) I will swirl in some peanut butter over the jam for a double punch of PB. So good!
Yay!! So glad that you enjoyed the bars, Rose. And yes, I highly support adding a swirl of peanut butter over the jam. You can never have too much PB!
Has anybody tried subbing sugar for maple syrup or honey?
Hey Jill! I haven’t tried honey or maple syrup, but you could totally try it! The only thing is that it might end up needing more flour if it’s too liquidy. Let me know if you do try these and how they turn out. 🙂
Like your recipes, they look good. I will try to make some. Do you have keto friendly ones?
Hey Christine, I don’t follow a keto diet, but many of my recipes can be made to fit a keto lifestyle if they aren’t already. 🙂
These look and sound amazing! i’m on a total PB&J kick right now. I was wondering if you could possibly replace the egg with something else? Is it just acting as a binder in this recipe? Maybe a flax or chia egg? Applesauce? Mashed banana?
You could totally try it with a flax or chia egg! I haven’t tested it, but I bet it would work just fine. Let me know if you try it and how the bars turn out. 🙂
These look delish, but I am not a fan of coconut oil..what could I use as a substitute?..thanks!
this recipe looks delicious, but was wondering if there was a substitute for coconut oil…would canola or avocado oil work as well?.thanks!
I think that would work just fine, Paula! Let me know if you try these bars and what you think 🙂
I can’t stop eating these! They bring out everything great about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, while being an excellent, bite-sized snack. I might go down on the sugar because the jam is already sweet, but this is just preference. I loved the idea of using peanut powder as a sort of flour.
Woo!! So pumped you’re enjoying these pb&j bars, Madeline! Thanks so much for trying them out and coming back to leave a review. It means so much to me!
Can i bake it using Airfryer instead of an oven?
Hi! Just wanted to pop by and say I think perhaps the ingredients list should be updated to say “1/2 cup melted coconut oil” instead of “1/2 cup coconut oil, melted.” If you measure half of a cup of coconut oil in its solid state and then melt it, as the instructions indicate with the placement of that comma, it will only equal about a 1/4 cup. That may be why some folks found this to be extremely crumbly–myself included! 🙂
Hi there! Thank you for the note. I will be sure to update this so it isn’t confusing for people. 🙂