Chocolate Banana Granola Bars

January 20, 2014 Ceri

Every day when I pick up Julian from daycare he asks me the same question, “Do you have a treat?” I don’t know if he can possibly be hungry (the food made on site at our daycare is so good I’m jealous when I read the menu) or if he just looks forward to our little ritual. I don’t always have a homemade something or other tucked in my handbag but when I do, he really notices the difference. “Mmm, how did you make this?” The kid knows how to butter me up, what can I say?

Well, on the day I showed up with these let’s just say I was pretty popular. I was looking to add to my snack recipe roster and came across this recipe on The First Mess, a beee-yoo-tiful healthy food blog you must really check out. I was pretty faithful to the recipe as it was written and it was so up my alley. Most store-bought granola bars are packed with sugar and oil and while these are definitely a treat, they’re so good you don’t need a huge piece to feel satisfied. Chocolate and bananas are long-time friends so it’s a stroke of genius to put them together in a bar. I ended up with a lot of extra drizzle so I’ve cut the recipe in half here but if you want more chocolatiness, go to town! Let me know if you give these a try – we love hearing from you!!

photos by Maya Visnyei

Chocolate Banana Granola Bars

Ingredients

For the bars:
3 super ripe bananas
3 Tbsp almond butter
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil and a bit extra for your baking tin
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cup chopped nuts & seeds (I used hazelnuts and pecans)
1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used half and half chips and cacao nibs)
For the drizzle:
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 Tbsp coconut oil
splash of milk

Method

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 8" x 12" baking tin with coconut oil.

Line the bottom with parchment paper and leave some over hang on either side to help you get your bars out later.

In a standing mixer or with an electric mixer, combine the bananas, the nut butter, brown rice syrup, maple syrup, coconut oil, cinnamon and salt until it's a nice creamy consistency.

In another bowl, toss together the oats, nuts and chocolate bits.

Now pour the banana mixture over the dried and stir it all together

Keep scraping down the edges of your bowl

Use your scraper to help you get everything out of the bowl and onto the parchment.

Spread the batter out flat so that it goes right to the edges of your baking tin.

Smooth the top as best you can using a spatula.

Bake for 40 minutes until the top is golden.

Allow it to cool completely before applying the drizzle

Use a double boiler if you have one or place a bowl over a pot of simmering water, trying to keep the bowl from actually touching the water.

Place all of your drizzle ingredients in the bowl and stir them as they melt.

Use a spatula to drizzle the chocolate over the bars.

Pop in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up the drizzle.