I’ve got the most perfect snack bars for you and your little ones (or big ones, or just you, who cares, I’ve got snacks).
These were inspired by Clif Kids Zbars that I picked up at Trader Joe’s one evening when the extremely unlikely event of me running out of snacks in the diaper bag happened. They did call from hell that evening saying they were passing around blankies and hot cocoa for everyone.
The bars seemed healthy enough though. Made with semi-decent ingredients, and not too much sugar. I took a bite (I did not yank that thing out of her hand for a bite, no, she begged me, mommy, please, I need help finishing my snack, PLEASE mommy) and I was hooked. I grabbed a couple extra to take home for bake-spiration and started hacking away in the kitchen before even considering setting up the dinner table.
I baked my first version. These were yummy bars, which I posted on instagram, but they weren’t as fudgy as the Clif bars.
I started working on my second version of healthy chocolate oat bars the following evening. As I was preheating the oven I tried the raw batter. Wait. This was yummy, and just as fudgy as the clif bar. There wasn’t anything in these worth applying heat to anyway! STICK THEM IN THE FREEZER MOMMA, NOW, said a tiny little bossy voice in my head (like a little boss baby imaginary baking friend).
Thank you boss baby friend, that was the absolute right call. The bars set perfectly, eating them cold was delightful, but they don’t even “thaw” or get mushy in room temperature. They keep their perfect form!
And I love myself a no-bake recipe, see others here.
They have such a deep chocolatey brownie-like flavor from all the cocoa blended together with the dates, and plenty of chocolate chips to adorn every bite with chocolate.
I think I talked your head off already, so let’s get to that recipe!
No-Bake Chocolate Oat Bars
Equipment
- food processor
Ingredients
- 1 cup pitted medjool dates (160 g) sub mashed banana
- 1/4 cup nut/seed butter (64 g)
- 2 cup oats (160 g) rolled or quick
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder (24 g)
- 6-8 tbsp (nut) milk
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips (60 g) dairy-free if desired
Instructions
- Line an 8×8 square pan with parchment. If your dates are hard, soak these in warm water for 30 min first and drain.
- Blend in a food processor dates, almond butter, oats, cocoa, salt until mixed (it will ball up, that's ok).
- Transfer to a bowl and gradually add almond milk (or date soaking water) to create a bar dough. You want a dry dough not sticky, so add as little as possible.
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- Press into the pan, freeze at least 1 hour, ideally overnight.
- In the morning slice and enjoy!
Notes
- These magically don’t thaw in room temperature so feel free to pack them in lunch boxes, store refrigerated or in room temperature! If you used more milk than necessary they might get a little soft, though they will still be Delicious.
Just stuck a tray of these into the freezer. I didn’t use the bar format, I used a cookie scoop to portion out sixteen “cookies”. Squished into a ball, flattened slightly, and stacked in a nonstick pan. I left out the chocolate chips as I didn’t have any in the house. MFP gives me 94 calories per cookie. Chewy, chocolaty, and perfect sweet treat size!
Hi Jazmine, what a great idea to make no-bake cookies! I’m so glad this recipe worked for you, enjoy your sweet treats and keep me posted! (ps. if you don’t mind adding a rating next time I would SOOO appreciate it!)