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These Healthy Cookie Bars are a lighter take on a traditional chocolate chip cookie bar recipe. They are still packed with chocolate chips and made with simple baking ingredients, but with way less sugar!
Whether you’re cutting back on sugar, looking for a lower-calorie dessert, or just craving cookies, these low-calorie cookie bars are the perfect treat! You can find everything you need to make them in your pantry, and they are great for sharing at a dinner party or holiday. You can also freeze them and save them for yourself!
If you enjoy healthier cookie recipes, you’ll love my healthier skillet cookie, raspberry coconut thumbprint cookies, and healthy white chocolate macadamia cookies.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Simple Ingredients: These healthy chocolate chip cookie bars are made with standard baking ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry.
- Low Sugar: These cookie bars use less added sugar than a typical cookie recipe, which makes them lower calorie and lower carb!
- Lighter Version of Chocolate Chip Cookies: The reduced sugar also means fewer calories, which makes these a lower-calorie dessert.
Ingredients
- Eggs: Add some extra protein to your healthy bars with 3 eggs.
- Light Brown Sugar: Brown sugar has more flavor than regular sugar, so you can use less of it to cut the calories without sacrificing flavor.
- Maple Syrup: A splash of maple syrup also helps sweeten the bars without using additional refined sugars.
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Variations & Dietary Modifications
- Make Them Gluten-Free: Substitute the all-purpose flour for a 1:1 gluten-free alternative to make these healthy chocolate chip bars gluten-free.
- Make Them Dairy Free: While I don’t recommend substituting the butter, if you need these bars to be dairy-free, you could use coconut oil. They won’t taste exactly the same, but they will be dairy-free. Don’t forget to use dairy-free chocolate chips too!
- Mix Up the Mix Ins: Instead of chocolate chips, make these cookie bars with a wide variety of different mix-ins! Try nuts, raisins, chocolate candies, peanut butter chips, or sea salt and caramel.
If you like these lighter cookie bars, you will love these healthier chocolate chip cookies! They’re one of my favorite healthy dessert recipes to bring to a party because they’re always a big hit.
How to Make Healthy Cookie Bars
These healthy chocolate chip cookie bars are a perfect low-calorie version of a classic cookie. They are still sweet and delicious, but with way less sugar. Before you start baking, preheat your oven to 350°F and spray a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Step 1: Combine the Dry Ingredients. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
Step 2: Mix the Wet Ingredients. Cream the butter and light brown sugar together. Add the remaining wet ingredients and mix again.
Step 3: Combine the Ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix. Then fold in the chocolate chips.
Step 4: Transfer and Bake. Transfer the batter to the greased baking dish and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top. Bake them for 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown.
I love enjoying cookies with a cup of coffee! Try a homemade pumpkin spice latte or low-calorie peppermint mocha to make it an extra special occasion.
Expert Tips
- Don’t Over Mix: Stop mixing the cookie dough once all of the dry ingredients are well incorporated into the wet ingredients with no dry spots. Over mixed dough will result in tough, flat, and overly chewy cookies.
- Cool Before Cutting: Be sure the cookie bars are fully cool before you slice them into actual bars. If they are still hot, then the healthy cookie bars will crumble apart instead of holding their shape like a cookie or brownie.
- Use Parchment Paper: In addition to greasing your 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish, I highly recommend you line it with parchment paper. The paper makes it easy to lift the finished cookie bars out of the pan. You can also wait to cut the bars until after they’ve been removed from the pan with this method.
Storage Directions
- Storing: Store your low-calorie cookie bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze these bars to enjoy later! First, slice the bars and place them spaced out on a baking sheet. Freeze them on the baking tray for 30-60 minutes, then place the frozen bars together in a plastic storage bag. They will last for 3 months in the freezer.
- Reheating: You can reheat the bars from frozen in the microwave in 20-second intervals. You can also bake them in a toaster oven for 3-5 minutes. If you don’t want warm cookie bars, just let them thaw at room temperature and enjoy them that way.
Serving Suggestions
Enjoy these low-sugar cookie bars as an afternoon pick-me-up or as a sweet treat after dinner. They are great for dessert for a party, or to pack in your lunch at work. The protein from the eggs will help keep you feeling satisfied, and there’s just enough sugar for your sweet tooth!
- Enjoy a healthy chocolate chip cookie bar for dessert after having my taco pasta or healthy broccoli chicken stir-fry for dinner.
- If you’re going to a dinner party, I recommend bringing these cookie bars and a healthy appetizer recipe like my high protein chili cheese dip to share with everyone!
Recipe FAQs
Almond flour will not work for these cookie bars because it’s too dense and will not rise. This results in a heavy cookie with a poor texture. Coconut flour cannot be used either because it is too absorbent and will produce overly dry cookie bars.
Truvia is a zero-calorie sweetener that tastes similar to brown sugar and is a great substitute. Dark coconut sugar can also be substituted for brown sugar.
The eggs are a necessary part of this recipe so the cookie bars rise and contain a decent amount of protein. I don’t recommend making this recipe without eggs.
More Delicious Low-Calorie Dessert Bar Recipes
If you tried this Healthy Cookie Bars recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you go in the 📝 comments below.
Healthy Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ⅔ cup Butter, unsalted and melted
- 1 cup Truvia, or sugar of choice
- 3 Eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup Maple Syrup
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Mini Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish with parchment paper or lightly spray with cooking spray.
- To a large mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix to combine.
- Mix the butter and the zero calorie sugar in a separate bowl until it creams using a hand mixer or a standing mixer.
- Add the maple syrup and vanilla extract and combine. Then add the eggs to the mixture mixing until fully incorporated.
- Slowly add the dry flour mixture to the wet mixture to combine.
- Fold the chocolate chips into the batter by hand reserving 2 tablespoons for on top. Transfer the batter to the prepare baking dish then top with the reserved chocolate chips.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick can be inserted in the center clean.
- Remove the bars from the oven and cool in the pan 25 minutes before slicing and enjoying.
Notes
- Stop mixing the cookie dough once it is well combined to avoid overmixing and making dense cookies.
- Allow the cookie bars to fully cool before cutting them; otherwise, they will crumble and fall apart.
- Line your greased 9×13 baking dish with parchment paper to make removing the bars from the pan a breeze.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These taste great. My issue is that the calories listed are: 100, 225 and 189. this is quite a range and I think purposely misleading. You tout these as being only 100 calories – which is why I made them — seemed too good to be true. But now I see the Q&A says each bar has 225 calories. The nutritional information says 189. I know these are estimates, but there is a huge difference between 100 and 225. I see other questions about this in the comments. At least the three numbers on your page should agree.
Hi Mary, the bars are 179 calories as stated in the nutrition facts in the recipe card. I ran the program again this morning and that is what it calculated to be sure. 225 would be if you use regular sugar. 179 is with a zero calorie sweetener like Truvia. I don’t know where 189 came from. But I am glad you enjoyed the bars!
Thanks, Megan!
These bars are excellent and I appreciate your fast response. The count of 179 is low considering how good the bars are. I wish there WAS a delicious dessert bar that was only 100 calories, but that really would be too good to be true! Thank you for posting this and all of your recipes.
Mary
I definitely suggest these bars, the recipe was easy to follow and quick to mark and they came out light and fluffy and overly chocolaty. The bars calories were off, but we ate it anyway!
The calories are accurate as stated. Truvia has zero calories. If you use something other than a zero calorie sweetener then the calories will be different. Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Hi! i calculated the calories and it says 240? How are these 100 cal ea?
Thank you for letting me know! The system was calculating the butter as “buttermilk” instead of butter for some reason. Also, the ingredients should have said Truvia brown sugar not light brown sugar. But I will say that even when I only changed the butter, they were at 225 calories. Had you not pointed this out, I would not have known there was a mistake so thank you for asking!