Raw Chocolate Super Seed Breakfast Bar
A healthy breakfast bar is every busy person, mom and exercise enthusiast’s best friend. If you’ve ever been out and about in the world and hangry, you love a bar for its nutrient-dense portability. You can stick a bar in your purse, gym bag or backpack and you’re all set ‘til the next meal.
What makes this particular bar special is that it’s NOT held together by loads of sugar or sticky-sweet dates. Instead, we use apple sauce, maple syrup, almond butter, coconut oil and a coarse sunflower meal. What’s all that good stuff holding together? Oats, cocoa and a boatload of seeds: hemp, chia and flax. Hello superfoods, hello fiber! It’s nutty, seedy and very cocoa forward — especially after you drizzle rich, sweet dark chocolate over it.
It’s also super easy to make: It comes together in 10 minutes of hands-on time. There’s no baking! You just stick it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and, presto, a scrumptious breakfast bar. We use the term breakfast loosely. Yes, it’s the bar we want just before we head out on our morning run. It’s also a great one to take out cross-country skiing, on a long road trip Up North or to the interminable board meeting.
Unfortunately, our kids like them too. They’re so pretty, and they have a soft, brownie-like texture. Read: They look and taste like dessert. And who are we to ruin their fun by calling it healthy?
Yield: 16 bars
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Refrigeration time: 2 hours
Ingredients
¾ cup organic raw sunflower seeds, unsalted
3 ½ cups organic quick oats
½ cup organic hemp seeds
½ cup organic chia seeds
4 tablespoons organic ground flax seeds
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup organic apple sauce
½ cup L&B Pure Maple Syrup
⅔ cup organic almond butter
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, organic
¼ cup organic raw extra-virgin coconut oil, melted
1 cup organic dark chocolate (for drizzle)
Directions
- In a food processor, process the sunflower seeds until they have the course consistency of cornmeal.
- In a large bowl, combine the ground sunflower seeds, oats, hemp seeds, chia seeds, ground flax seeds and cocoa powder.
- In another bowl, combine the applesauce, maple syrup, almond butter, olive oil and melted coconut oil and stir until smooth.
- Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Pour the mixture into an 8- x 8-inch glass baking dish and press the mixture firmly to create an even layer.
- In a double boiler or microwave, melt the dark chocolate and drizzle it over the top of the bars.
- Chill the bars in the refrigerator until the mixture is firm, about 2 hours, and then cut them into 16 bars. Store the bars in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
This recipe is brought to you by Nourish, our guide to eating a variety of whole foods that expand your palate, give you more energy — and help you live a balanced life. If you love it, check out the entire Nourish collection!
