Oat Breakfast Bars No Added Sugar

Two months spent in Asia has reduced my appetite for sugar further. Even in Japan, I favored the no sugar soy latte at Starbucks (which by the way tasted better than milk-based latte) than their Matcha latte premixed with sugar. Upon returning home, my sweets craving husband brought home a box of three thick and meaty oat breakfast bars from our local Whole Foods Market. I was first quite skeptical but upon tasting the buttery and not so sweet mouthfuls, I decided this is worth my try.

I made several follow-up trips to WFM to figure out the recipe but each time the breakfast bars were not available. Apparently WFM corporate randomly sends dough for local bakers to make their midnight batch, and those were my unlucky days. Upon further investigation, I discovered that not only there are other fans from the local WFM, there is even a recipe which I referenced in my own iteration below. BTW: WFM’s oat bars are way too sweet and not worth the $6.99 price tag. In my 1st attempt below, I made a few mistakes and substitutions but the result is a rich and most satisfying oat breakfast bar. Worth experimenting further but this one is damn good. In a separate post, I will feature another breakfast bar with cooked quinoa—also very good and favored by CC#2.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (160g) quick oats

• 3 tbsp milk powder

• 1/4 cup old fashioned oats

• 1/2 cup oat flour

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour (or sweet rice flour or brown rice flour for GF version)

• 1/2 tsp table salt

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 cup butter + coconut oil (50%/54g butter, 50%/54g coconut oil, or 50%/54g canola oil, or any of the combination of the fat desired)

• 1/2 cup (120g) peanut butter (If using almond butter, switch to almond extract)

• 1/2 cup date paste (115g), 20 pitted dates cooked in 1 cup water and grind to paste

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

• 1/4 raisins

• 1/4 shreded coconut (unsweetended)

• 1/2 cup raw cashew or almonds, roughly cut

• 1/4 roasted pumpkin seeds

• 2 tbsp black sesame seeds

• 1 tbsp ground flax seed

• 1 tbsp chia seeds

Instructions:

• Mix ground flaxseed and chia seeds with 1/3 cup water, let stand for 15 minutes until other ingredients are readyIn medium bowl combine quick oats, old fashion oats, milk powder, oat flour, all purpose flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda

• Add dried cranberries, raisins, cashews or almonds, pumpkin seeds, and black sesame seeds to oat mixture above

• Melt butter + coconut butter in microwave for 30-45 seconds, and mix in peanut butter, date paste and vanilla extract until well blended

• Mix all ingredients together to form dough

• Shape dough either into one large rectangular shape or two narrow logs, flatten to about 1 inch thick

• Place on foil or parchment paper and refrigerate overnight

• Bake at 325F for 30-40 minutes until golden brown

• Cook (and refrigerate) before cutting into squares

• Taste good either at room temperature or cold

  Notes: After trying different variations, here are a few thoughts, (1) adding cooked quinoa didn’t enhance the texture; (2) substituting 50% canola oil for coconut oil or butter seemed to have taken away the richness of this square; and (3) Peanut butter tastes great but I have yet tried using almond butter + almond extract.