Best Ever Oh Henry Bars Recipe

These simple bar cookies are pure peanut butter and chocolate magic! Next time try these Vanilla Brownies!

Jump to:

• ❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
• 📋 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Tips
• 🎥 Video
• 🍽 Equipment
• Oh Henry Bars
• 💬 Comments

❤️ Why you'll love this recipe

It's a vintage recipe that's as simple and uncomplicated as childhood. Sweet, salty, crunchy, creamy goodness that's ready in minutes. Oh Henry bars travel well for bake sales, potlucks, and picnics, too!

📋 Ingredients

This recipe is made without corn syrup. I've seen many that call for it but this is the one I grew up with. I hope you love it as much as I do.

🔪 Instructions

Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.

1. Preheat the oven. Grease pan. Mix oats, sugar and brown sugar in large bowl.
2. Mix well.
3. Pour in melted butter.
4. Stir until the entire mixture is moistened with the butter.
5. Press into pan firmly.
6. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Cool completely.
7. Melt chocolate and peanut butter together.
8. Stir until completely smooth.
9. Spread over cooled cookie base. Chill.

💭 Tips

Expert Tip: If there are allergies to peanuts use almond butter or sunflower seed butter in place of the peanut butter.

• Make sure you break up any lumps in the brown sugar.
• Old fashioned or quick oats are fine - just don't use instant oatmeal. It won't work!!
• Brown sugar- either golden or dark is fine. It's up to your tastes.
• Peanut butter - creamy or chunky - just remember if you use chunky it will give the chocolate topping a lot of texture.
• Oh Henry bars can be made ahead, covered, and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Or freeze them for up to a month. Thaw before serving.
• Double check your products for gluten but these are, as far as I know, gluten free.
• Try butterscotch or white chocolate chips in place of the chocolate.

🎥 Video

Just click on the image below if you'd like to see the full length video on YouTube. It opens in a new tab so you won't lose your place here.

🍽 Equipment

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When you show up at the next church potluck with these homemade bars stacked inside this retro carrier you're going to feel just like Mrs. Cleaver... or Aunt Bee. Hey, party like it's 1965, right?

What’s new? Check out my Restless Chipotle & Co. Store on Amazon where you'll find all kinds of nostalgic goodness!  Thanks so much for being a part of Restless Chipotle!

I have my mother's old Better Homes and Garden's cookbook, circa 1939... or something like that. It's crazy old.

It's got a lot of vintage recipes, the stuff I grew up on, but there is something I like better. Stuffed in the pages is a treasure trove of papers that Mom cut, collected, and procured for seven decades.

There are recipes that were my grandmother's, aunts', and ancestors unknown. There are recipes from brands that no longer exist and brands that are still around.

Memories. Memories with all of them.

This recipe for Oh Henry Bars with oatmeal is in there, faded, stained, and kind of frazzled looking but its appearance attests to the popularity of the recipe.

I've seen it called O' Henry Bars and plain Henry Bars depending on which cookbook I'm looking at. They're all the same. Yummy peanut butter and chocolate over a crunchy oat base.

Vintage recipes have a way of bringing back our memories with each nibble. I love making the dishes that I loved as a child and sharing them, along with the memories that go with them, with my kids and grandkids.

Things that no one makes anymore like Butterscotch Buckaroons and Peanut Butter Molasses cookies are flavors that are going to be forgotten and gone forever soon - and that would be a shame, don't you think?

These Rice Krispie Treats are another favorite recipe!

First Published: April 20, 2015. Last updated July 9, 2020 for better images, to add video, and better reader experience overall.