Wendy's Oatmeal Bars: A Home Version

Home reconstruction

The reason you are looking this up is almost certainly that you cannot buy them any more. Wendy's ran oatmeal bars as part of their breakfast line and they are no longer on the national menu, which is why the search results for this are mostly people asking each other where they went.

So this is a reconstruction of a discontinued item. Nobody outside Wendy's has the formula, and the product is gone, so nothing can be checked against the original. Treated honestly, that means: here is a chewy oat bar that lands in the same place — sweet, soft in the middle, holds together in one hand.

What they were

From Wendy's breakfast menu descriptions while the item was running, the bars were an oat-based breakfast bar, soft rather than crunchy, with dried fruit through them, and sweet enough to read as a treat rather than as cereal.

The texture is the part people describe most often: chewy and soft, not a granola bar. That points to a high proportion of binder — syrup and butter — and a short bake.

What you need

• 200 g rolled oats (not instant, not steel-cut)
• 100 g plain flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 115 g butter, melted
• 100 g soft brown sugar
• 120 g honey or golden syrup
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 120 g dried fruit — raisins, cranberries, or a mix

Rolled oats matter here. Instant oats turn to paste and steel-cut stay hard through the bake.

Method

1. 1. Heat the oven to 175°C / 350°F. Line a 20 cm square tin, leaving overhang on two sides so you can lift the slab out.
2. 2. Mix the oats, flour, cinnamon, salt and bicarbonate in a large bowl.
3. 3. In another bowl whisk the melted butter, brown sugar and honey until smooth, then whisk in the egg and vanilla.
4. 4. Pour the wet into the dry and stir until there is no loose oat left. It will be stiff. That is right.
5. 5. Fold in the dried fruit.
6. 6. Press into the tin — firmly, with the back of a spoon or damp hands. **This is the step that decides whether the bars hold together.** Loosely pressed mixture bakes into crumble.
7. 7. Bake 20–25 minutes, until the edges are browned and the centre is set but still soft to a light press.
8. 8. Cool completely in the tin before cutting. At least two hours. Cutting warm is the other way to end up with crumble.
9. 9. Lift out by the paper and cut into 12 bars.

Getting the texture right

Press harder than feels necessary. Most failures are here, not in the bake.

Pull them out while the centre still gives. They firm up substantially as they cool. A bar that looks done in the oven is a hard bar on the plate.

Do not swap the syrup for more sugar. The honey or golden syrup is doing the binding. Dry sugar cannot hold oats together.

Variations

Wendy's version had dried fruit through it, but the base takes almost anything:

• Apple and cinnamon — 100 g finely chopped dried apple, and double the cinnamon
• Chocolate chip — 120 g chips instead of the fruit, folded in once the mix has cooled slightly so they do not melt
• Nut and seed — 80 g chopped almonds and 40 g pumpkin seeds, which makes a firmer, less sweet bar

Storing them

Airtight at room temperature, five days. They soften slightly after day two, which most people prefer.

They freeze well for three months. Wrap individually — a frozen slab is impossible to separate.