Healthy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bars with Date Caramel
Here's a Healthy Granola Bar Recipe that tastes like a real treat! These peanut butter bars are filled with dates, oats, nuts and seeds and topped with melted chocolate.
Ingredients
- 6 large medjool dates
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3 tablespoons brown rice syrup*
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, divided
- 2 cups puffed brown rice cereal
- 1 cup rolled oats, (gluten free if needed)
- 1/2 cup nuts, roughly chopped (I use almonds and walnuts)
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and lightly spray a 9 x 9 inch baking pan.
- In a food processor blend together the dates, peanut butter, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, and 3 tablespoons of the coconut oil (reserve the last tablespoon for the chocolate on top). Blend until it forms into a ball.
- In a separate large bowl stir together the dry ingredients - puffed rice, rolled oats, nuts, salt and seeds. Add the blended peanut butter and date mixture to the dry ingredients and use a spatula and your strong arm to mix the two together (this make take a little bit to get it all combined).
- Press the mixture into the prepared pan and bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Let cool completely (put in the freezer for a few minutes to speed up the process). Melt chocolate and remaining 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and pour over the top of the cooled bars. Place in the fridge to further harden then loosen with a knife around the edges, turn out onto a cutting board and cut into 16 square bars. Store in the refrigerator in an air tight container.
Notes
You can find brown rice syrup at any natural grocer. I usually use both maple syrup and brown rice syrup which results in a flavor not too sweet and not overly maple-y. The brown rice syrup also is more sticky and helps the bars to mold together.