One of the best bar recipes you’ll ever try!! These M&M Chocolate Oat bars have layers of oats, a sweetened condensed milk and chocolate center topped with more oats and M&Ms.
We LOVE Baking with M&Ms – from M&M cookies to M&M cake mix cookie bars, M&M cookie cake– they’re the perfect addition to so many desserts. They’re also great to change up for holidays.
M&M Bars
I’ll pretty much take any excuse I can get to try out a new dessert. Recently, I decided to make some M&M Chocolate Oat Bars, which was a recipe from Betty Crocker, and they were a hit!! My husband took them to co-workers and he said they were gone in minutes.
Because they were so good and easy to make, they’ve now become one of our go-to desserts (along with our sheet cake and cookie bars). We love changing them up with different M&Ms and almost always serve them warm with ice cream!
They’re simple – they get rave reviews and they’re fun to change out with the holidays.
How to Make M&M Chocolate Oat Bars
Since these have become go-to treats, we can literally make these with our eyes closed. They’re so easy!
Begin by preheating the oven to 350.
In a large bowl, mix oats, flour, brown sugar, salt and 1 cup softened butter with a spoon. Remove 1 cup of this mixture and set it aside. Press the remaining mixture into a greased 9×13 dish.
In a small pot, melt sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons of butter over low-medium heat. Stir constantly until chips are melted and everything is smooth.
Pour this mixture over the oats and spread evenly. Sprinkle reserve oat mixture over the top along with the M&Ms. Bake for about 25-30 minutes. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting.
Storing + Toppings
To STORE these bars, just cover tightly with Saran wrap and place on the counter for up to 3 days. If needing to reheat, just do so in the microwave for about 15 seconds.
Other Bar Toppings. We think M&Ms are the perfect addition to these bars. There are other candies that work well including:
- Toffee Bits
- Other chocolate chips (white chocolate and butterscotch are great)
- Reese’s Pieces
- Sprinkles
more Variations
These bars are so easy to change up with the different toppings listed above, but also with the M&Ms. There are now so many different varieties and colors, that you can create custom M&M bars for every holiday. You can also change up the flavor based on the M&M used.
You can even use Peanut Butter M&Ms, and if you think they are too big you can crush them to add on top. In the picture above, you can see how we’ve made Valentine, Christmas and Easter M&M bars just by changing up the candy on top.
Let us know if you give these a try, and if you love them. We have a feeling you will. 😉
For more bar desserts, check out:
- Cookie Bars aka Pan Chewies
- Cake Mix Cookie Bars
- Sugar Cookie Bars
- Magic Bars
- Millionaire Bars
- Oh Henry Bars
M&M Bars Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups quick oats
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup butter softened
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 1 bag milk chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp butter softened
- 1 cup M&Ms
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In a large bowl, mix oats, flour, brown sugar, salt and 1 cup softened butter with a spoon. Remove 1 cup and set aside.
- Press remaining mixture into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.
- In a small pot, melt condensed milk, chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons of butter over low-medium heat. Stir constantly until chips are melted and everything is mixed well.
- Pour chocolate chip mixture over the bottom layer and spread evenly. Sprinkle leftover cup of oat mixture over the chocolate.
- Top with M&Ms and bake for 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting. ENJOY
These were scary good with M&M’s! Next time I’m going to try toffee bits. I may be in big trouble. 😉
Such a quick and delicious dessert to take to a get together! Thanks!
GreaT recipe. Family loves this. I add a teaspoon of vanilla to the choc. Mixture.
Thank you!
Sounds great! I am glad your family loves them! Thank you 🙂
Easy Delicious treats!
So glad you think so!! Thank you 🙂
Melt in your mouth delicious! I w I was looking for an easy recipe for my kids to help me make for Father’s Day for my husband. This was the pefect one! Great tasting, simple directions and wonderful website!
Glad you found this one! We make these quite a bit for those reasons! Thank you!
My family loves these!
So glad they do!! Thank you!
I’ve made these at least twice. I love them! This year I’m trying to make holiday treats in advance. Can they be frozen?
Glad you like them! You know, I have not tried freezing them. So, I am not sure how they freeze.
These have become a family favorite! Soooo yummy!
Soooo yummy!
So yummy!
My family loves these and has requested them many times already. Quick and easy recipe.
These bars are so yummy! They are very flavorful and tasty.
Glad you think so 😉 Thank you!
One of my favorite recipes! Whenever I bring it to an event, everyone wants the recipe!
We love this recipe! I haven’t brought it anywhere where people don’t comment and say how much they like it! Totally crowd pleaser and love that it’s a bar cookie- easier to make a lot of them and fast.
So good. Who doesn’t love a good cookie bar? These are one of our favorites. We will be making today with holiday M&Ms just to make sure the sugar coma is complete. 😂
Ahmayziinggg!!! I cooked them for 28 minutes. Still gooey. But I like gooey
Me too! Thank you for trying them!
So the recipe says “softened” butter, but in the comments it seems I was supposed to melt it? Which is the correct way?
So you will use softened butter when making the dough (1 cup). Then for the chocolate layer, you add chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk and 2 Tbsp of butter to a saucepan and heat, so that butter will melt in with the other ingredients in the saucepan. So you kind of do both. 🙂 Hopefully that helped clear up any confusion. We have a video on this post showing how to make the bars too which can help giving a little clarification too.