I have been making energy bars for a long time. In the past I used recipes and I loved the creations that came out. I enjoy prepping ingredients and having on hand food that is pure and delicious.
These bars were improvised. I made a choice of ingredients without studying them too much. I often times need to have a snack available at work, on the road or for my child. These are perfect! As a matter of fact they served as breakfast today! With an dollop of homemade jam they were a breakfast blast!
These are great since they are not too sweet, do not crumble, have many nutrients, will not dry out. Perfect for shoving in a bag and have for a little pick me up in the mid morning.
List of ingredients:
2 eggs
peanut butter
millet flour
honey
baking powder
baking cocoa
turmeric
pumpkin spice
flaxseed
old fashion oatmeal
coconut
chia
sesame seeds
pepitas
sunflower seeds
cacao nibs
dried cherries
raisins
The list of ingredients is long. You most certainly do not have to add all ingredients to your bars. You can pick and choose your favorites.
I like to mix and match many nutrients in my food. Spices included as you can notice.
Here are the steps:
Beat the eggs first.
Add the peanut butter, honey and powders and beat again to combine well. I would add the oatmeal after these are mixed. As you can see on the photo there is some oatmeal already in. My little helper was working hard with me on making those;)
The objective is to combine dry ingredients so they are fully incorporated with eggs, honey and peanut butter. Later start adding oatmeal and after mixing it all together add seeds and nuts. Cherries and raisins go last.
Again, I had some help in the kitchen so my ingredients had a slightly different order in which they were mixed. The bars at the end turned out ok;)
The batter will be very thick. I used spatula to spread it in a baking sheet.
Oven as warmed up to 350F.
I placed aluminum foil in my baking pan. Sprayed with cooking oil and sprinkled with oatmeal.
Baking time was about 35 minutes. The layer of batter was rather thin in my baking pan. Please do the toothpick test before taking your bars out of the oven.
Once they were baked I flipped them on a cutting board, removed the aluminum foil and cut when still warm.
I played by ear with all the ingredients except eggs. I did not really measured all of them. For the flour, honey, peanut butter and cocoa I started with two heaping tablespoons of each. The bars are not too sweet. They taste more like dark chocolate - the 70% and up. If your preference is a sweeter snack definitely add more honey. Or any other sweetener. The bars are hard like store bought bars so will not crumble easily.
I have not tasted yet how long they stay fresh. I am thinking that if stored in an air tight container they will last for at least a week.