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The Oat Bar
This past week I was craving a hearty oatmeal chocolate chunk cookie with just the perfect amount of sweetness, a bit of crispiness on the edges, and a thick warm soft center – there was only one problem…
I was feeling pretty lazy and after a week of failed baking innovations I didn’t want to scoop out 32 cookies, wait for them all to bake, and find out I had another less than perfect batch of baked goods on my hands (some weeks are just like that!). So, I took a chance, added a bit more liquid than one usually would to your average cookie dough mix and these beautiful, satisfying oat bars were born 🙂
Here it is folks, the perfect, hearty snack that is 100% vegan, gluten-free and filled with lots of delicious melt-y chocolate chunks – my favourite part of course. Why I love this bar? It contains no added flour and the sugar and oil is kept to a bare minimum meaning they are actually a healthy snack unlike a lot of the “oat” bars sold in groceries stores where the second ingredient is sugar and the third is oil. Did I mention there is also coconut in these babies? I love coconut and if you don’t give coconut a chance – The coconut adds a lovely texture and flavour that definitively would be lacking otherwise. These bars also take very well to freezing in dough or in baked form.
Did I mention the dough is super delicious – I recommend licking the spoon! The best part about vegan baking? Not worrying about consuming raw eggs when licking the spoon because we all do it anyways 😉 These bars are super easy to make – mix them up, let them cool off in the fridge, bake them and voila your oat bars are ready to be enjoyed for a mid-day energizing boost. Putting them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes is a crucial step – this ensures that they will get nice, puffy and soft when you bake them. The first time I made these I skipped this step and I ended up with a flat and crispy oat bar.. So leave them in the fridge, study, run an errand or go for a jog – your oat bars will be waiting for you to be baked when you’re back 🙂
The texture of these is between a soft, hearty oatmeal cookie and a dense cake – meaning they make the perfect filling snack or on the go breakfast! Especially, during exam times when you still want to maintain a healthy diet but often rely on sweets due to the late nights, stress and deadlines! Back in 1st year of university my girlfriends and I used to go out and buy one of the mini (haha , who am I kidding? The normal small sized) Ben and Jerry chocolate-chip cookie dough and brownie ice cream packs and eat them in the library as we fiercely memorized our courses and spit out essays… This might just be a healthier snack than my first year experience…and won’t leave you with a tummy ache the next day 🙂
Speaking of studying whenever it is time to study all I want to do is bake – procrastinate much? I sometimes find myself in the kitchen baking a cake when I really should be buried in my books. There is something so calming and wonderful about making a cake, cookies, or anything from scratch 😉 Wishing you a wonderful week of studying and working – you might just see another dessert recipe from me this week if my latest essay will ever finish itself !
Print
The Oat Bar with Dark Chocolate Chunks
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups roughly processed oat flour (2 cups oats)*
- 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 1/4 cup cane sugar*
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
“Wet” Ingredients
- 1.5 tbsp chia seeds + 3 tbsp water (= Chia “egg”)*
- 2 heaping tbsp unsweetened applesauce*
- 2 tbsp melted coconut oil*
- 1/4 cup milk of choice (almond, coconut, cashew…)
- 1 tbsp maple syrup or honey
- splash vanilla
- 45 grams dark chocolate (broken up into little pieces; usually one chocolate square = 10 grams) (or 1/3 cup chocolate chips)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350ºf or 180ºc.
- Put Chia seeds in a small size bowl with water and mix.
- Roughly process 2 cups of oats. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of oats (you will have a bit left over).
- Put dry ingredients in a medium size bowl (with oat “flour”). Mix.
- Put wet ingredients in a large bowl (with chia egg – your chia seeds should have thickened up to a gooey egg like consistency). Whisk together until very smooth and creamy.
- Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until moist dough forms.
- Fold in dark chocolate “chips”.
- Put in fridge for 30 minutes of more.
- Spread into a lightly greased baking pan. Smooth out with a metal spoon.
- Bake for 15 -17 minutes (until the top of the bars are slightly golden brown.)
- Let sit for 10 minutes and Voila! Enjoy!
Notes
- Nutritional Benefits: High in healthy fats and low in cholesterol 🙂
How do you usually find yourself procrastinating when you really should be doing that important task that needs getting done ?
