Recipe: Chocolate oatmeal no-bake bars

As soon as I saw this recipe online it caught my eye and decided I have to try it. It calls for only few ingredients, it is raw with no artificial ingredients and no flour and very simple to make.

   

Chocolate oatmeal no-bake bars

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peanut butter (use no salt, no sugar version, otherwise your bars will end up too sweet)
• 1/3 cup honey, or less according to taste (original recipe had 1/2 cup, but I have found the result was very good with 1/3cup)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil 
• 2 cups old fashion oats
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts/raisins/cranberries
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1/2 cup shredded 70-80% dark chocolate
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp maca powder (you can omit this)

 When measuring, I used 250ml sized cup.

Firstly, in a saucepan, melt peanut butter, honey and coconut oil together. Watch this closely to avoid burning. When it all dissolves, add cacao powder and mix thoroughly. While still on the stove, add grated/shredded dark chocolate. Remove from the heat and stir in oats, shredded coconut, nuts and raisins, maca and vanilla powder. Stir everything together.

Now is the time to pour it into the dish of your choice. I used ceramic rectangular dish, measuring about 20 x 30 x 5 cm. You can use smaller dish, if you prefer your bars thicker.

Level the mixture and place it in the fridge. It can be put in a freezer too to harden quicker. After a while, remove it and keep it in the fridge.

I must say, these bars came up nicely and the taste and texture is great.

They are much better healthier version of a store bought bars, with very little sweetener, considering only adding 1/3 cup to the whole mass. I ended up with 15 medium bars, each about 1,5-2cm thick. I all depends how big you want them and also how thick. In case of a thicker bars I recommend using a smaller dish. Overall, this is a great and simple recipe and quick to put together. It actually only involves mixing all the ingredients together and the job is done.

I hope you will love this same as me.

Enjoy!

recipe adapted from www.moneysavingmom.com