You may already know that I love my Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bakerecipe. It makes a nice, soft oatmeal bar. But I set out to make another soft oatmeal bar.

I came up with this Cran-Cherry Oat Bar which was literally devoured by the first coworker who tried it. No one else got a piece!


  This time, I decided to get the protein from chickpea flour. And without the sticky peanut butter, I needed another binder—a flax egg!

Vegan, Gluten-Free, Nut-Free

Number of servings depends on your serving size. I cut mine into 6 bars. 4 of which were eaten by one man.

1 Tablespoon ground flax seed

3 Tablespoons water

½ c. brown sugar

5 Tablespoons vegan margarine

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 cup chickpea flour, packed

1 cup oats

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ c. dried cherries

¼ c. dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Using a fork or whisk, mix together ground flax seed and water. Set aside 15 minutes.

3. In a large bowl, cream together margarine and sugar.

4. Stir in flax egg.

5. Stir in lemon extract.

6. Stir in flour, oatmeal, and baking powder. It should look like the photo below.

7. Stir in dried cherries and dried cranberries.

8. Spread evenly in greased pan. I used an 8” x 8” pan, but you could use a larger or smaller pan if you want thinner or thicker bars.

9. Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown (or desired darkness). Because there is no egg, you do not have to worry about making sure it’s not raw.

 Variations: Go ahead and experiment with other dried fruits. And, if you don't have chickpea flour on hand, another flour will work. If you're not gluten-free, I have made this recipe with all-purpose flour. And, if you aren't vegan, butter and a real egg work, too.