Hi guys
I hope you are all having a fab weekend!
I’ve been looking for a quick and healthy breakfast option. I wanted to make something which I could grab last minute before heading to work. These date bars could also work as a snack, pre or post workout or even as a dessert.
I am not a fan of dried fruit. The stuff makes me cringe but I’ve been reading up a lot lately on dates and how great they taste in recipes. I must admit with low expectations I decided to give it a try.
I found a recipe for date bars online which looked alright besides a couple of ingredients such as raisins 😬🤭 (which is a no no in my book) so I decided to change it up and remove a couple ingredients and add in couple of my own. The plus of this recipe is that there is no baking involved.
Here we go….
INGREDIENTS FOR THE BARS
3/4 cup pitted dates
1 cup raw oats
4 heaped tsp sugar free peanut butter
Dash of cinnamon
6 sachets stevia
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Almond milk as needed
INGREDIENTS FOR THE TOPPING
2 heaped tsp sugar free peanut butter
1/2 cup almond milk
1 tbs cocoa
6 stevia sachets
DIRECTIONS
(If your dates are soft and sticky then skip this step and move onto the next one.) Place your dates into a bowl and pour hot water into the bowl until all the dates are covered and let it stand for 15 mins. Drain the water. The dates should feel soft and sticky.
Add the dates and oats into a blender and blend. (A food processor will work better if you have one) I had to stop after a couple seconds each time to scrape down the sides and remove all the thick pieces which would get stuck underneath the blades and then blend again.
Continue blending until there are no thick pieces left. Remove from the blender and place into a bowl.
Melt the peanut butter and add it into the bowl along with the rest of the ingredients and mix. If the dough is too thick then add in a little bit of almond milk. (I ended up adding in too much milk and then had to counter by adding in more oats) you should end up with a cookie dough like consistency which is sticky.
Press the dough into a dish (I made mine about 2cm thick (this will give you about 12 bars in total)
FOR THE TOPPING
Melt the peanut butter and add in the remaining ingredients and mix until a smooth consistency. (It should feel like icing) if it’s too thick add in a little more almond milk.
Spread the peanut butter ‘icing’ over the top and place in the deep freeze for 20 mins.
Remove from the deep freeze and slice into 12 bar size pieces and ENJOY 😊
For someone that doesn’t like fruit these don’t taste that bad at all.
I stored these in my deep freeze.
Please share if you have some ideas of how we could change these up with different ingredients to try out next time.
Have a fabulous weekend further 🦋
Sam