These nutritious Peanut Butter Banana Bars are made with overripe bananas, peanut butter, and honey—no butter, oil, or white flour needed. These fudge-like, chewy bars can be made in one bowl and don’t require any stops to a special health foods grocery store.
Try some of my other better-for-you baked goods like this peanut butter granola, these healthy zucchini muffins, or this banana bread with Greek yogurt.
Peanut Butter Banana Bars
If you’ve got some overripe bananas laying around, grab ’em and some peanut butter and let’s get started! These delicious bars are the perfect afternoon pick-me-up, on-the-go breakfast, or healthier treat.
While overripe bananas don’t always look the most appetizing, the fruit is still good. In fact, the more overripe, the sweeter the fruit and the better it sweetens these bars. Thanks to utilizing the natural sweetness of bananas, these bars don’t need to much additional sweetness, just a little bit of honey and brown sugar go a long way!
The peanut butter adds a great fudge-like, thick texture to these bars and also ensures they’re a good satiating snack. My kiddos will eat these after school and be full until dinnertime which feels like a huge win!
Peanut Butter Banana Bars Tips
- Mash the bananas well. You don’t want chunks in these bars. Use a fork or a hand mixer to mash them fast.
- Use overripe bananas. The riper the banana, the sweeter the bars (and the more flavorful). I like to use bananas that have speckles all over.
- Adjust the sugar. If you often eat lower-sugar treats, this will likely taste just right. If not, you can add 2–3 more tablespoons of brown sugar. Don’t add more honey—it can change the texture of the Peanut Butter Banana Bars.
- Line the pan. Use parchment paper (not foil) so you can lift the bars out easily. If the pan isn’t lined, it will be difficult to get these bars out nicely.
- Oat flour. What is it? Just regular oats that you blend up (check the “quick tip” below). It adds a great texture, a different flavor, and a healthier aspect to this recipe.
Quick Tip
How to make oat flour in 30 seconds or less: Add regular oats (old-fashioned oats or quick oats) to a blender and blend until they look like flour. Any blender works—I’ve used a cheap one and a nicer one, and both were great. No need to buy oat flour when you can make it in seconds!
Other flours don’t work the same and may change the texture. Oat flour soaks up more liquid than regular flour.
Peanut Butter Chips
I love adding these Reese’s peanut butter baking chips to the bars. You’ll find these chips with the other baking chips in the grocery store. If you’d prefer to use a more nutritious option, try sugar free chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips instead!
Quick Tip
Use leftover peanut butter baking chips in this popular Reese’s Fudge recipe.
How To Know When These Bars Are Done Baking
Baking can change a lot depending on things like altitude, humidity, your oven, or even the pan you use. Here are some things to watch for:
- Preheat the oven to 300°F: It’s easy to go on autopilot and assume you should bake these bars at 350°F, but they won’t bake right at that temp.
- Preventing under-baked peanut butter banana bars: Make sure your oven is correctly calibrated. Wait for the oven to fully preheat before adding the bars, and place the pan in the center of the oven.
- Visual cues for doneness: Bars will slightly pull away from the edges of the pan, edges will slightly darken, and the top will look set (not glossy).
More ways to use overripe bananas
- Cinnamon Banana Bread with a quick streusel topping
- Chocolate Banana Bread with Greek yogurt
- Flourless Banana Muffins with mini chocolate chips
- Banana Pancakes with maple syrup
- Strawberry Banana Smoothie with honey
Peanut Butter Banana Bars
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup banana 1 medium banana
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter I use Skippy
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar lightly packed, see note 1
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup oat flour just oats that have been blended up, see note 2
- 1/2 cup peanut butter baking chips or chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°F. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper with an overhang for easy removal. These bars are near impossible to remove from an unlined pan. I wouldn’t recommend using foil.
- Remove the banana peel and mash well using a fork. Measure after it has been well mashed.
- In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, cream together the mashed up banana, peanut butter (don’t warm it up), honey, vanilla extract, and brown sugar. Beat until completely combined. Beat in the egg until incorporated.
- Beat in the salt, baking soda, baking powder, and oat flour (see note 2). Add the peanut butter chips and fold in with a spatula.
- Using a spatula, transfer the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the mixture into an even layer. Bake 18–25 minutes or until lightly golden brown and bars have slightly pulled away from the edges. Be careful to not overbake or they end up dry and less flavorful.
- Remove and allow them to cool before using the parchment overhang to pull the bars from the pan. Cut into bars and enjoy! Bars are best enjoyed within 1–2 days. (They have a tendency to get moist as they’re stored.)
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Could this recipe be doubled in a 9×13 ?
It’s not a perfect double in volume so I’m not really sure how it would end up without personally testing! Wish I could be of more help, but I don’t want to say something will work without knowing for sure!
I subbed maple syrup for the honey, used crunchy pb, blended up a whole banana (w/ skin – learned that from another blog!), and added 30g bittersweet chocolate chips. The bars stick to knife when cutting so a bit messy but I like them a lot. Thank you!
Delish! I am so happy to hear this! Thanks Rebecca! 🙂
I replaced the peanut butter with fresh almond butter, added a tablespoon of Giffard Banane du Brésil, and replaced the peanut butter chips with white chocolate and dark chocolate chips and added a 1/4 of chopped roasted walnuts. Delicious…. Considering some other variations.
YUM! So glad you enjoyed! Thanks Bobby! 🙂