Not me looking at my pantry of nuts, oats, nut butters, and some dates and creating yet another tasty thing to snack on all week. I think at this point it’s pretty clear that these are my go-to ingredients friends.
The bar dough is simple: blend nuts, dates, oats in a food processor until it’s a crumbly meal like thing. Then add enough nut milk (or even water if you don’t have it) 1 tbsp at a time to get a bar dough.
It should not be wet or dry and crumbly if you measured using a food scale. But if not, add some more oats or water to adjust the thickness.
Spread this evenly in a parchment lined load pan and freeze it 30 min to set. The oats will soak up any wetness from the dough.
Then smear your fav nut/seed butter on half this rectangle (I used chocolate hazelnut butter, YUM) and make one big sandwich with the other half of the rectangle. Tuck it in nicely and securely using parchment and at this point you can choose your own adventure!
Bake the bars until you reach your desired level of doneness, let them cool and slice. Or freeze them again to set completely and slice and enjoy!
Either way they’re nutritious and tasty, especially as an afternoon snack if you ask me.
I hope you give the recipe a try, and if you do, please let me know which adventure you choose!
Small-batch Stuffed Oat Bites
Ingredients
Oat bar layer
- 3/4 cup chopped medjool dates (120 g) sub one banana and a few tbsp brown/coconut sugar – or use maple syrup instead of almond milk below
- 1/2 cup pecans (60 g) sub walnuts
- 1 cup oats (80 g) I used quick oats, you can sub some for coconut too, yum!
- 2-4 tbsp (nut) milk I use unsweetened almond milk
Filling
- 1/4 cup nut/seed butter (64 g) I used chocolate hazelnut butter
Instructions
- Line a standard loaf pan with parchment.
- Blend dates and pecans until meal like. Transfer to a medium bowl, add oats and enough milk to turn into a bar dough. It should not be very sticky. If it becomes too wet add some more oats or oat flour.
- Spread half the bar dough evenly in your loaf pan, set aside (this is your top crust). Line your loaf pan with parchment again and spread the rest of the bar dough (this is your bottom crust).
- Spread your nut butter filling (you can gently microwave it to make it runny which will help with the spread) and top with the other half bar dough you set aside. Tuck it in nice and smooth (you can use the extra parchment).
- At this point you can freeze the bars until set, or bake them for 20-25 minutes at 350F.
- If frozen thaw for 5 minutes, otherwise slice (I cut mine into 24 small bites) and enjoy!
Notes
- If you want to make chocolate stuffed bars and don’t have chocolate butter at home, melt in microwave 2 tbsp chocolate chips and 2 tbsp nut/seed butter of your choosing (30 sec increments at a time) and use this as your filling.