Wednesday 26 March 2014

Gluten Free, No Bake Chocolate & Cranberry Protein Bars




I have been looking for a protein bar recipe that doesn't use dates or rice protein powder for a long time, to no avail. Why? Because I never have those things handy...and I am lazy. And also, most store-bought bars are no bueno and have funky weird ingredients.

At last, I was inspired by this post at Yummy, Healthy, Easy  for chocolate raspberry protein bars. As per usual though, I had to complicate things for myself and change things around because ehh where is the fun in following sound advice?

But what happened was...great!

I thought I'd use oats...but that would make these bars like granola bars. I wanted a dense, chewy protein bar. So I blended the oats into oat flour...added cranberries and not raspberries...added cocoa powder..and dark chocolate chips and before I knew it, this baby was born! No baking, no sugar, no gluten. Just...awesomeness!





So magical. So so so magical.





Now I KNOW you want the recipe! So keep on readin'!






Chocolate & Cranberry Protein Bars                                  

Makes 8 Bars 

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
  • 1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons honey 
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1 cup oats, ground into flour
  • 1/4 cup chocolate whey protein powder 
  • 1/4 cup ground flaxseeds
  • 2 tablespoons cranberries (or other dried fruit)
  • 2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips 
Directions:

  1. In a small saucepan on medium heat, melt the nut butter, 1/2 cup of the honey and cocoa.
  2. In a large bowl, mix the oat flour, protein powder, flax, cranberries and chocolate chips
  3. Pour nut butter mixture onto the dry ingredients and stir until you have a large ball. If the mixture won't combine, add the extra honey to make it come together. 
  4. Press ball into a lined 8x8 square pan lined with aluminum foil and press until you fill the pan with your mixture and it becomes a large flattened square
  5. Place in the freezer for 1 hour 
  6. Cut bars into 8 pieces and store in an airtight container between pieces of wax or parchment paper.




**Note: You can roll these into balls as quick protein bites too! Freeze to set them and store the same way!**


How do you know they are set? They go from shiny to matte -->




Then put them in your container and take 'em with you to the gym, school, work, or...just eat them out of the container on your kitchen table. No judging!


They are chewy, chocolatey and delicious. Feel free to change the nut butter, protein flavour and dried fruit to make a whole BUNCH of different flavour options!

See how dense and chewy they look?





Yep. These won't last long at all in my house! But If they don't all get eaten, I wouldn't store them longer than 4-5 days! I had one of these bad boys with some vanilla unsweetened almond milk. Wow. Just...just don't even wait. Go! Go now to the kitchen-mobile!

I hope you have fun and experiment with different flavour options (if not, don't worry-- I will and I'll report back to you!)

Happy Bar Hopping!

XO



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