Wholesome Almond Butter Oat Chocolate Chip Bars
Oh hello. It's October. It's fall. You're probably craving everything warm and cozy and comforting.
And have I got just the recipe for you. Prepare yourself. This is a good one.
But I mean, what could be un-good about a soft and gooey and rich and dense bar filled with dates and oats and almond butter and chocolate chunks? Not much. Aside from the fact that you may end up eating the whole pan by yourself.
So yeah, I'm excited about these wholesome date oat bars. If only they sounded a little more exciting.
These almond butter chocolate chunk bars are flourless. And they're dairy free. And they're refined sugar free. And they're made in five minutes in a food processor.
Here's how they're flourless: the oats (and almond butter) replace flour in this recipe.
Here's how they're dairy free: the almond butter replaces regular butter in this recipe.
Here's how they're refined sugar free: the dates replace sugar/honey/maple syrup/coconut sugar in this recipe.
Here's how they're made in five minutes in a food processor: they're made in five minutes in a food processor. (Okay, maybe that one didn't need explaining.)
Have you ever sunk your teeth into a dense, soft, rich, gooey, flavor-packed, hearty bar? Did you enjoy the sensations and flavors? If your answer is yes, it's highly likely that you'll appreciate sinking your teeth into one or seven of these almond butter oat bars as well.
Because these flourless bars are so rich and dense. So hearty and filling. So soft and gooey. So tender and melt-in-your-mouth. So chocolaty and earthy and nutty.
Oh, and also sweet and salty. Because sprinkling flaky salt over these bars before they're placed into the oven is a marvelous idea. An idea I put to action when I made these oat date bars. An action that yielded sweet and salty bliss.
As usual, I grabbed a bar of bittersweet chocolate and chopped it up for these bars. Because roughly chopped chocolate doesn't compare to chocolate chips.
Chocolate chunks are on a whole other level. They have to be, if you consider pools of hot, melty chocolate superior to boring little chips.
Well, after listening to my arguments and analyzing these photographs, I sincerely hope you conclude that these wholesome oat bars will suffice as the first October 2018 recipe for the blog.
So go ahead. Make these wholesome almond butter oat chocolate chip bars. Enrich your life. Literally. Because these bars are very rich. And soft and gooey and delicious and bla bla bla bla.
Good day.
WHOLESOME ALMOND BUTTER OAT CHOCOLATE CHIP BARS
Yield: about 16 bars
1 cup oats
1 cup dates (about 14 medjool dates)
1/2 cup almond butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chocolate chips/chunks
-Flaky salt for sprinkling, optional
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8" square baking dish with parchment paper, leaving some excess hanging over the rim for easy removal later.
2. In a food processor, blend together the oats and dates until combined. Add in the almond butter, egg, vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt and blend until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand last.
3. Spread dough into prepared baking dish evenly. Sprinkle flaky salt over the dough if desired. Bake for 16-20 minutes, until edges are golden but center is still slightly under baked.
4. Let bars cool completely before lifting out of pan by the excess parchment paper and slicing into bars of desired size.
