Helen's Recipes 02: No Bake "Protein" Bars

Greetings! Lately I have been really into making no-sugar-added desserts. Mostly because it's a fun challenge to make delicious desserts with this restraint. Today, I am here to share with you this "protein" bar recipe I have made 4-5 times now within a span on three weeks... 

This is a chocolate version I made.

Ingredients

Servings really depend on how big you cut it. I typically cut into 16 pieces.

• 6 medjool dates
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup quick oats
• 1 tbs matcha powder or 1tbs cocoa powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup natural nut butter (needs to be liquidy)
• 2 tbs refined coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• A few squares of unsweetened chocolate... maybe 60-80g?

Optional ingredient ideas to play with if you want it to be extra special

• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 scoop protein powder to up the protein
• Crushed nuts as a topping
• Chopped dried cranberries
• 2 tbs maple syrup if you like your desserts to be sweeter

Directions

1. Submerge the dates in a bowl of hot water to soften.
2. In bowl #1, mix together dry ingredients (almond flour, oats, matcha/cocoa powder, salt) 
3. Remove the pits from the softened dates. You have a few options:
• Use your hands to squish and break apart the dates
• Chop up the dates with a knife
• Use a food processor
4. In bowl #2, mix together wet ingredients (date paste, peanut butter, coconut oil, vanilla extract)
5. Combine dry and wet ingredients.
6. Either plop all of the batter into a lined bread loaf pan, or divide into 6-7 lined cupcake tins and press down. Put pan in freezer.
7. In a small bowl, melt together the chocoalte and a liiiittle bit of coconut oil (maybe 1/2 tsp?) in the microwave. I typically do 30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, stir, 20 seconds stir, then 10 second increments from there until melted.
8. Pour and smooth chocolate on the batter and plop back into the freezer.
9. I typically forget about it for a few hours so... I don't know how long you have to wait. But wait for it to set before cutting into bars!
10. Store in freezer. I don't know how long it'll last because we finish it in like 2 days.

This is a matcha cup version. I swirled some matcha chocolate on top.

I won't claim these are comparable to a yummy chocolate chip cookie, but it hits the spot as a healthy dessert! Since we are using almond flour, it is higher in fat & protein content which makes it a bit more satiating. Plus, it's perfect for the summer since it's a frozen treat!