4 Ingredient Peanut Butter Banana Bars
By Sammi Brondo — July 26, 2024
If you liked the Banana Oaties, you are going to LOVE these. They’re basically the same thing but in bar form and with peanut butter. Consider it an upgrade!
This recipe only has 4 simple ingredients and, like the oaties, couldn’t be easier to make.
If you want, follow the same instructions for the oaties and make them into oaties too. I kinda liked making them a little different as bars, but they’ll work either way. They may just need a little less time in the oven as oaties.
Not only does peanut butter add a delicious flavor, but it also adds a nice boost of fat and protein, making these even more filling and satisfying as a snack.
Grab 1 for a snack or even for dessert – I promise, they will not disappoint.
I love making these bars ahead of time to have on hand for the week. Anything that saves time for breakfast or snacks – or that gives me a ready-to-go dessert – is such a win in my book.
I’ve also seen a lot of parents making these with their kids, which I love. This is such a fun recipe to make with your kids that they can help prepare and eat too.
Now that I think about it – I’m totally making these for my daughter soon!
Store these bars in airtight container at room temp. They’ll last for 3-4 days. You can also make a batch to freeze for up to 3 months. Simply microwave when you’re ready to eat.
Commonly Asked Questions
Mash the bananas
To start, preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a loaf pan or line it with parchment paper.
Add the bananas to a large bowl and mash until almost smooth. Add in the peanut butter and vanilla extract and mix well.
Fold in chocolate chips
Add in the oats, salt, and baking powder and mix to combine. Fold in 1/3 cup of the chocolate chips, reserving the rest for the top of the bars. If you don’t like chocolate chips feel free to skip them. Check out other substitutions below.
Pour mixture into loaf pan
Pour the mixture into the loaf pan, using a spoon or spatula to smooth it out on top. Add the remaining chocolate chips to the top of the bars. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool and cut
Let cool and cut into 6-8 pieces.
Ingredients
- 3 super ripe bananas
- 1/4 cup smooth natural peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cup instant or quick cooking oats
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a loaf pan or line with parchment paper.
- Add the bananas to a large bowl and mash until almost smooth. Add in the peanut butter and vanilla extract and mix well.
- Add in the oats, salt, and baking powder and mix to combine. Fold in 1/3 cup of the chocolate chips, reserving the rest for the top of the bars.
- Pour the mixture into the loaf pan, using a spoon or spatula to smooth it out on top. Add the remaining chocolate chips to the top of the bars. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let cool and cut into 6-8 pieces.
Notes
- Bananas: Make sure your bananas are super ripe. The more ripe they are, the sweeter the bars will be. If you want to ripen bananas quickly, try preheating the oven to 350 F – add them to baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes. They’ll be black on the outside but super ripe and perfect for baking.
- Peanut butter: I recommend using a creamy, natural peanut butter. The texture works best. If you use something like JIF or Skippy, you may want to add less oats so that the bars aren’t dry. Peanut butter can also be swapped for almond butter or sunflower seed butter.
- Mix ins: There are so many other mix ins you can add to these too. Tons of people have tried this recipe on Pinterest – here’s some ideas that they’ve tried mixing in: chopped walnuts, or peanuts, a dash of cinnamon, pumpkin purée (for the fall or winter), unsweetened or sweetened shredded coconut, flax seeds, hemp seeds or even a little bit of honey would work well.
These were sooo easy and soooo good!
Do you recommend using quick oats or rolled oats for this recipe?
Can I add some vanilla protein powder to this recipe? Or will the protein powder won’t handle the heat?
Sam, this looks delicious! Think I could use frozen bananas that I had reserved for smoothies?
Yes, definitely! Just thaw them first.
Do you know nutritional information? Carbs calories ?
I don’t, unfortunately. I try not to include that information as it could be triggering for a lot of people who visit my page for an all foods fit mindset, but there are a lot of sites when you can easily input the info in to calculate it!
Can I make a double batch and bake in a 9×13 baking dish?
I haven’t tried it, but I think that should work! You may just need to increase the baking time.
Should I use quick oats or old fashioned?
Either will work!
I made this recipe today and they came out really good!! They are not as shinny as yours, but I am not complaining, lol! So easy to make. I will be making more, for sure. Thank you !!!
Thank you for sharing, I’m so glad to hear that you loved them!
Just made this, it looks, smells and tastes amazing! So easy to make and the outcome was great thank you so much!!
Thanks for sharing, Kerlisha! I’m so glad to hear you loved them!
I just made these today and tried them, they were excellent and so easy thank you!
So glad to hear you liked them! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Can steel cut oats be used?
Unfortunately the texture of steel cut oats wouldn’t work. Only old fashioned or quick oats!
Can you use natural PB ?
Yes, definitely!
Recently made a different banana bread that used 3z as many ingredients and had to toss it bc was terrible (not yours!) And made this quick and easy 4 ingredient banana bar/bread and is literally amazing and so so easy. I did add some flax seed and still came out awesome !
I’m so happy that you loved it and found it so easy to make! Thanks for sharing, Stephanie!
These are everything you need and a recipe you can play with! Thank you!
This last time I was out of chocolate chips. I used homemade almond butter with no oil. And replaced the chips with 1/4 c of chopped walnuts and 1/4 c of a mix of dried cranberry and fig. Then I added a scoop of protein powder to it all and the texture turned out pretty perfect. It absorbed just enough while keeping deliciously soft. I’ll be doing that again.
Sounds delicious, I love the way you’ve been changing them up!
These bars are a staple in my freezer! Perfect for any time of day and so quick and easy to make. I have been playing with pumpkin, cashew butter, and PB2 instead of PB and adding collagen powder or really whatever I have in the house and haven’t been disappointed yet. Great recipe!
Those modifications sound delicious! I love hearing that these are a staple in your freezer!
Mine are in the oven now! Cant wait to try them and loved how super simple they were to make. Do you recommend eating them warm from the oven or do they taste better once cooked? Thanks!!
Either way! Hope you love them!
My kids love this oatmeal "cake" and I find it easier than mixing up messy bowls of oatmeal for a fun breakfast. Its also very easy to hide all sorts of healthy things in like bee pollen, flax, chia, etc. Great recipe!
I told my mom about this recipe and now we are both making it this weekend! Love these 4 ingredient recipes.
Hope you and your mom love them!
I love how quick and easy this recipe is! Plus, I always have these ingredients in my pantry. They’re an awesome treat at night when I want something sweet or midday when I want a more substantial snack to fill me up. So good!
I came across the recipe on pinterest while looking for healthy banana recipes. Super easy to make, and very yummy. I used almond butter instead of peanut butter. These are so delicious!!
I just made these, but in a 9×13 pan. I baked then at 325 for about 15 minutes. They look great. Letting them cool off is the hard part.
These came out great! I added a little cinnamon and some baking powder to give them some "lift." Baked in an 8×8 pan. Perfection! Thanks so much for this recipe. 🙂
Do you have the nutrition facts?
Hello your thus recipe looks so scrumptious. I need to know what sz loaf pan to be used?
Just made it! We used a glass loaf pan but I think it should’ve been cooked in a dark one? Did I miss that note? Definitely will try an 8×8 next time, esp since it’ll be glass. Very Very yummy and easy to bake!
Loved it! I added 2 scoops of protein powder. Absolutely delicious!
These were delicious. Nice and easy recipe
Do you have the nutrient information? Or how many calories?
2 questions: can you use almond butter instead and can you freeze these?
hi ,
question can you make this recipes with frozen bananas , i keep my bananas in the freezer with the get too ripe when my teens don’t eat them
I make most of banana based baked goods from frozen bananas. When you let them thaw, they become mush and are much easier to mash than fresh. I toss bananas that are getting too ripe into the freezer without peeling them (usually into a bag), and when I have enough for a recipe, I pull them out to sit on the counter. Works great as long as I do that ahead of time. If not, the microwave works
These are really good. I cut down the chocolate chips to 1/4 cup, and I added 1/4tsp. Salt and 3 tsp cinnamon.
Rolled oats or quick oats?
Does not matter
Absolutely delicious! I’ve made these twice now and they will definitely be a staple in our household! THANK YOU FOR SHARING!! 🙂
I doubled the recipe and baked in a 9×13 pan
Did you have to adjust cooking temp and time?
I substituted 1 Tablespoon of honey for the vanilla and its sooo good!
Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1 bar Servings: 8
Amount per serving:
Calories 193
Total Fat 8.2g 10%
Saturated Fat 3.2g 16%
Cholesterol 2mg 1%
Sodium 47mg 2%
Total Carbohydrate 26.7g 10%
Dietary Fiber 3.3g 12%
Total Sugars 11.8g
Protein 5g
Vitamin D 0mcg 0%
Calcium 29mg 2%
Iron 2mg 9%
Potassium 297mg 6%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Calculated using VeryWellFit.com recipe calorie calculator.
NPB or regular?
I made a double batch and there’s no doubt that these will now be a staple in our house! SO yummy and extremely fool-proof.
Personally not my favorite. Not sure what it was but just tasted a little strange. Followed everything like I was supposed to, and they baked really well. I saw another comment about switching the vanilla out for honey instead and I think that may make a difference in these. Overall not the worst, but I won’t be making them again.
I love these! Made them for the first time today and they turned out perfect! I even forgot to add the vanilla and I still love them! One of my new fave snacks!
Made these for the first time today I added chopped walnuts and some chia seeds. Turned out pretty good.
I have made these and they are delicious. Has anyone tried freezing them? I would like to bake a large batch for an event.
Thanks!
I just pulled a batch out of oven . I sprinkled trail mix on top of my bars hope they are good! I need extra fiber in my body😉 Thank you for sharing this and many other recipes.
Will steel cut oats work ok?
What is the nutrition information for these bars?
Delicious and very quick and easy!!
Great recipe! There are many different variations which is nice. I baked them in the silicone muffin cups and they were perfect! I used peanut butter the first time and almond butter the second time. Today I am making them with almond butter and adding crushed pieces of walnuts. I double the batch thinking I can freeze them but they are always gone before I get a chance to put them in the freezer. 😊
I made these and used the parchment paper at the bottom. They came out very moist sorta made me think they weren’t done. They taste really good though. 😋
Made these 3/26/23. Delicious! I didn’t let it cool down long enough before I started cutting into them 🥴😋. I used chunky peanut butter instead and only 1/4 C of dark chocolate chips in the mix, none on top.
These are great! Why are they called 4 Ingredients? These will be a staple in the house. Has anyone made them like cookies…dropping on a sheet and baking a bit further apart.
Thanks for the recipe.
These were okay. I feel like they were still sort of bland? Totally could’ve been user error. Maybe if I added something else like honey or syrup in the mix! Or more vanilla. I’ll probably try again another time because it’s so easy!
These turned out SO good!!! My bananas were super duper ripe. I used natural almond butter instead of peanut butter and also used rolled oats – absolutely delicious!
Just made these! Used frozen bananas and almond butter instead of peanut butter because my daughter hates peanut butter and I used mini semi sweet chipits. I put a bit more vanilla then it called for because i had no more pure extract. Wow…. It was soooo good that we ate half of it already. Definitely going to do a double next time.
Delish and so easy to make! Just wish the nutritional info was available.
It wasn’t sweet enough! I did not have any vanilla and it definitely lacked it. Next tie I’d add brown sugar or honey for more sweetness!
Made these tonight and loved them. I used almond butter instead and only 1/4c mini chocolate chips but added 1/4c pecans and 1/4c shredded coconut. Turned out great!
These were really good; and super easy to make. I love how much versatility this recipe has for substitutions and mix-ins too! For those commentors asking about the nutritional info, I have calculated that using the exact recipe. It’ll only be an approximate, as banana size, brands and personal choices also make a difference (like if you use regular PB over natural, or a different type nut butter, more or less choco chips, etc…) But according to the recipe AS WRITTEN: cal 179, fat 6.9, sat fat 3.1, trans 0, cholesterol 0, sodium 3.3, carb 75.4, fiber 8.6, sugar 40.4 (no added sugar), protein 3.6
Looks good but it’s more than 4 ingredients. I think the name needs changed.
Tried these tonight. Very easy to make. After baking, I melted some peanut butter and drizzled them. Yum 😋. They came out a little chewey gooey but I prefer that over dry Will make again and add walnuts.
I made these and they were so yummy! I made a few alterations, I added dried cranberries and just a drizzle of honey (some of the other comments mentioned the bars not being very sweet and this was the perfect addition- not overly sweet but just enough). You have to let the bars cool completely before cutting and even then they were a little soft so I kept mine in the fridge and would take one out each day for a snack and they held their shape much better. Will definitely be making again as soon as my bananas are super ripe! Thanks for the recipe!
Do you have a carb count on this? I am not asking for calorie or low carb. I am asking because my loved one is type 1 DM.
Omggg! When I say these were gone the same day I made them I’m not kidding! My stepdad ate one and then before I new it he ate 4 lol, 10/10 for me!
4 ingredient? The recipe I followed has 5, and the recipe at the bottom has 7.
Add it all up and divide by how many pieces you cut. Simple
These are great for my long triathlon training days. I like to add coconut
SO GOOD!! i made with 6 tbsp of pbfit and used frozen blueberries instead of chocolate chips and it was AMAZING!!!
Can I cut these and freeze in individual bags? I’m going to double the recipe
My favourite go-to recipe when I have bananas to use up! Great for a quick, healthy breakfast or snack. I have some in the oven right now!
Banana, chocolate chip are delicious!
I added 1/2 a scoop of unflavored protein powder.
Used coconut oil on the pan, and it made the edges perfectly crispy. My new favorite. Ty!
I made these today and they were good but the amount of salt that was stated in the recipe was way too much. They came out a little too salty. Not inedible just should have used half than what was in the recipe.
I wish I would have seen this comment before baking. I agree. WAY too salty.
Made these today just like the recipe says and they are very good. Will make again!
How do you store the bars?
What if you don’t have baking powder? What substitutes can you use instead?
I would just go to the store and get baking powder.
These are really good and moist. I added granola that had pumpkin seeds, almonds and coconut. Love that they are sweet without sugar. Very easy to mix together. My husband wanted me to make these so he can grab before hitting the gym in the morning.
Can you add Eggs for more protein?
Store these bars in airtight container at room temp. They’ll last for 3-4 days. You can also make a batch to freeze for up to 3 months. Simply microwave when you’re ready to eat.
I actually really do want to know how many calories are in these. Does anyone know?
I thought these were amazing, used a mix of semisweet and milk chocolate chips, kept everything the same as the recipe. Wonderful way to use up bananas when you don’t want to make banana bread.
I entered the ingredients as written in the recipe into my fitness pal figuring 8 servings and it calculated calorie count at 174 and carb count at 21 g. for each serving.
Made these cookies the other night and they were amazing. Just used plain old Jif. Will be making again, thanks.
I doubled the recipe, because my kiddos would have the pan gone in no time…
Love these!!! Definitely will be making these frequently!
Wow, what a pleasant find! Your Peanut Butter Banana Bars recipe on sammibrondo.com is an absolute game-changer. I appreciate how effortlessly you combine health and taste into one delectable treat. The step-by-step guidelines and mouthwatering visuals make it incredibly easy to observe and recreate these heavenly bars in my kitchen. Thank you for sharing this culinary gem; it is sure to become a staple in my household. I look forward to exploring more of your recipes and insights on your blog.
Made these with almond butter, they are so easy and so delicious. I love that you don’t have to add any sugar, honey, or maple syrup (and can control the amount of chocolate chips) but it’s still so sweet and yummy! We make these every time we have ripe bananas!
These are so salty. Why does the recipe even call for salt? Disappointed I wasted my time and chose a bad recipe out of 1000’s of pb banana oatmeal bake bars…
That’s a very normal amount of salt.
1/4 teaspoon is salty? you must have made a mistake lol. most baked goods call for salt… it’s not weird
I’m confused as to why you say 4 ingredients when there are clearly more?