Protein Bars
Chewy bars of oats, protein powder, peanut butter and honey pressed into a tin and chilled for 1 hour, with dark chocolate chips.
Photograph credit: LUNA Protein Mint Chocolate Chip bar by Mx. Granger · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
How to Cook Protein Bars
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Line a 20 cm square tin with greaseproof paper. Mix the oats and protein powder in a large bowl.
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Warm the peanut butter and honey in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir until smooth. Stir in the milk, vanilla and salt.
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Pour onto the oat mixture and stir until a thick, sticky dough forms.
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Press very firmly into the tin and press the chocolate chips onto the top.
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Chill for 1 hour and cut into 10 bars.
Keep an Eye on These
- Warm the nut butter for even mixing.
- Add milk if the mixture is too dry.
- Press the bars down very firmly.
The Short Version
Protein powder is dry, chalky and absorbent, and a bar made with too much of it turns into a dry, crumbly brick. The way round it is a generous amount of nut butter and honey, which provide moisture and binding, and a modest amount of powder. Here the protein comes from the powder, oats and peanut butter combined.
Choose a vanilla or unflavoured whey or plant protein powder. Chocolate-flavoured ones are sweet and can taste artificial against the peanut butter. Whey absorbs less liquid than plant powder, so if you swap one for another, add a spoonful of milk to loosen the mixture, or a few extra oats if it is too wet.
Warm the peanut butter and honey together before mixing. Cold nut butter is stiff and does not blend evenly with the dry ingredients, leaving clumps of powder and pockets of oil. Thirty seconds in the microwave makes it fluid enough to stir in thoroughly. The mix should look like a thick cookie dough.
Press firmly into a lined tin, as for any no bake bar. Scatter chocolate chips on top and press them in. Chill for 1 hour, cut into 10 bars and wrap them individually for grab-and-go snacks. Store in the fridge, where they keep for a week.
On the Table Alongside
Cold milk · Banana · Coffee · Greek yogurt
Leftovers
Keeps in the fridge for 1 week, or frozen for 2 months.
Questions People Ask
How long does Protein Bars take to make?
15 minutes of preparation and of cooking, plus 1 hour of Chilling, so allow 1 hour 15 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 10.
Protein Bars Nutrition Facts
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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