Mouthwatering Oatmeal Brownies (With Protein)

I’ve struggled with making healthy brownies before, but these oatmeal brownies are an absolute homerun.

They’re gooey, chocolatey, and you’d never know that they were secretly nutritious.

These oatmeal breakfast brownies are the perfect on-to-go breakfast for chocolate lovers. They may taste just like decadent brownies, but they have all the benefits of nutritious baked oatmeal.

We’re sneaking some protein into these brownies, too. While they may not be the highest protein treat you’ve ever had, each brownie contains 10 grams of protein, making it a great choice for breakfast or dessert.

Plus, all of the ingredients are safe to eat raw, so if you want to underbake these to have super soft, fudgy brownies, you can safely do so!

 

Oatmeal Brownies vs Baked Oatmeal

You may be hesitant to enjoy this recipe as breakfast because, well, these are brownies. But I am here to convince you to eat brownies for breakfast.

These oatmeal brownies are made from a base of rolled oats and oat flour. The rest of the ingredients, which we’ll get into in a minute, are no different than ingredients you’d mix into your morning oatmeal: peanut butter, milk, protein powder, etc.

When I was writing this recipe, I had no idea whether to call refer to this as an oatmeal brownie, oat flour brownie, or brownie baked oatmeal.

Ultimately I went with oatmeal brownies (as you can see here), but this is truly no different than baked oatmeal. All of the ingredients are the same as baked oats, the only difference is that we’re slicing these up into gooey brownies!

If you need to convince yourself that it’s okay to eat brownies for breakfast, just remember that this recipe is brownie baked oatmeal, too!

 

How To Make Healthy Oatmeal Brownies

Since these are oat flour brownies, one of the main ingredients needed is oat flour. Since you may not have it lying around, you might be surprised to know that you can easily make your own homemade oat flour in a matter of seconds.

All you have to do is throw some oats into a blender or food processor and you’ll instantly have oat flour!

I chose to use half oat flour and half oats in this recipe to strike a balance between oat flour brownies and baked oatmeal. Basically, I want these to taste like a perfect marriage between oatmeal and brownies!

Other than oats (quick oats or rolled oats both work), here’s what you’ll need to make these brownies, along with possible substitutions.

• Peanut butter: Almond butter or cashew butter will also work great.
• Almond milk: You can use any milk that you prefer.
• Sugar-free syrup: I use this to keep the calories down a bit, but any liquid sweetener will work, like maple syrup or agave syrup.
• Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• Chocolate Whey/Casein Blend Protein Powder: I haven’t tested this recipe with other types of protein powder, but whey protein should work well. Vegan protein may not work quite as well. Or, if you want to eliminate the protein powder altogether, you can simply use the same amount of extra oat flour.
• Chocolate Chips or Chocolate Chunks: You can’t have brownies without chocolate. I melt down half of the chocolate to stir directly into the batter, then leave the rest as chocolate chips to yield an extra fudgy brownie.

All we have to do is add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix it up until a thick brownie batter forms. The mixture will essentially resemble a combination of brownie batter and oatmeal.

Once mixed up, spray an 8×8 dish with nonstick spray or line with parchment paper, then add your oatmeal mixture.

I like to top my brownie batter with some additional chocolate chips and sea salt, but that is completely optional. The brownies will come out great as is, but nobody will ever be upset about extra chocolate.

Bake the oatmeal brownies at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Since every oven is different, check on the brownies at the 20-minute mark to see if they seem done. If you want these to be extra fudgy, you can pull them out of the oven when they’re slightly underbaked since all of the ingredients are safe to eat raw!

To test if they’re done, use a toothpick to see if it comes out mostly clean. It doesn’t need to be completely clean since there is melted chocolate inside of these brownies, but it shouldn’t come out looking like you just dipped it into raw batter.

Once the brownies are done, allow them to cool for about 15-20 minutes to give them time to fully set before cutting into them.

You can slice these brownies into as many as you’d like to make, but I never understand why brownie recipes will say that the recipe makes 16 servings. I don’t know about you, but I do not want tiny brownies, so I chose to slice this into 9 large brownies.

Each brownie contains 200 calories and 10 grams of protein, making it a great breakfast to take with you on the go.

And yet, these taste just like delicious brownies.

Sure, the texture is different than traditional brownies, but that’s because these are basically a combination of oatmeal and brownies. The texture may be different from what you are used to, but it is truly a fantastic combination!

These oatmeal brownies hold up great as leftovers, too- simply store the leftovers in an airtight container and enjoy them throughout the week.

 

More healthy recipes for chocolate lovers

Your love of chocolate doesn’t have to stop with these healthy oatmeal brownies. Be it breakfast or dessert, I’ve got tons of healthy chocolate-focused recipes here on my blog for you to enjoy. It’s tough to narrow it down, but here are some of my favorites: