Fruit & Nut Chocolate Oats Bar

Fruit & nut Chocolate Oats Bar is a delectable flavoursome bar perfect to be consumed in breakfast or as snack/energy bar. It is a No-bake recipe and really easy to make with commonly available ingredients at home.

These days market is flooded with so many cereal or energy bars and are quite popular among people who are fitness conscious or looking for healthy food options. I tried some of these so called “healthy” cereal bars but on reading the details on their wrapper, I was really shocked to see some of the ingredients in them which we would definitely not like to ingest in our bodies everyday. These included Corn syrup, Glucose syrup, Hydrogenated vegetable oil, artificial colours / flavours, emulsifiers and preservatives etc.

I decided to try making these bars at home as this would not only make them healthier but also give a control over the ingredients we want in these bars. After few attempts, I was able to fabricate this simple recipe which anyone can easily make at home. The bar consists of rolled oats, almonds, cashews, mixed seeds like sunflower, melon, chia; raisins, dried fruits like cranberries, blackcurrants; honey, peanut butter and milk chocolate. If you want the sugar percentage to be low, you can make these with dark chocolate. By customizing these bars as per your own calorie requirement you can enjoy these without any guilt or worry.

These bars are great to carry while travelling also, as they not only make you feel full while giving instant energy but also satisfy your sugar cravings. You can even give these bars in your kids’ tiffin and I am sure they will love its chocolatey taste with crunchy texture. Also, it is a good option if you don’t have enough time for breakfast. Recently I have been to New York and saw so many people munching on such snack bars while travelling in subways or metro, especially during the morning rush.

Below mentioned ingredients give you 12 bars of 1″x3″ inches dimension. These bars can be prepared beforehand and stored in refrigerator. I personally make it on weekends in advance thus sorting our weekly snacks need. You can alter the size by cutting it in squares or smaller portions as per your own needs.

Hope you would like this delicious Fruit & Nut Chocolate Oats bar recipe!!

List of Ingredients: (Makes 12 pieces)

• Rolled Oats – 2 cups
• Almonds – 1/4 cup
• Cashews – 1/4 cup
• Mixed Seeds (Melon/Sunflower/Flax) – 1/4 cup
• Chia seeds – 2 tbsp
• Raisins – 1/4 cup
• Dried fruits (Cranberries/Blackcurrants/Strawberries) – 1/4 cup
• Honey – 1/4 cup
• Peanut Butter – 1/3 cup
• Milk Chocolate/Dark chocolate – 200 grams

Steps To Prepare:

Step1:
In a non-stick pan, dry roast the oats on low-medium flame till they become crunchy, slightly golden in colour and start releasing a nutty aroma. Transfer these roasted oats in a mixing bowl.

Step2:
Finely chop the almonds & cashews into small pieces. Dry roast these chopped nuts and mixed seeds for 2-3 minutes. You can take seeds of your choice like melon, sunflower, flax seeds etc. Transfer these roasted nuts into the same mixing bowl.

Step3:
Roughly chop the raisins, dried cranberries and blackcurrant . Add these along with chia seeds in the same mixing bowl with oats & nuts. Keep this mixture aside.

Step4:
Line a 6 inches square tin with a parchment paper as shown in the below pic. If you don’t have butter paper, you can rub sub unsalted butter on its base and sides. Instead of tin, even any cookie tray can be used.

I got this square tin & parchment paper from amazon which you can check out by clicking here.

Step5:
In this step we are going to melt our chocolate. I have used Cadbury Silk chocolate. You can use some other chocolate as well. We are using total 200 grams chocolate in our recipe. In this step we will melt only 100 grams and save remaining for our next step.

Chop the chocolate or break it into pieces. Transfer it in a microwave safe bowl. Here I am using  Borosil Microwave safe glass bowl. Melt the chocolate at 70 percent power in microwave in bursts of 20 seconds. By bursts, I mean microwave it for 20 seconds then check the chocolate with spoon to check if it has melted. Repeat the process till the chocolate is melted completely. It took me around one minute to melt it. Be careful in this step, as chocolate tends to burn really quickly on heating.

Step6:
In this melted chocolate add peanut butter and give a good stir. I am a big fan of crunchy peanut butter so using the same. You can use its creamy variant if you want.

Step7:
Add this melted chocolate-peanut butter & honey in the oats mixture we had prepared in step 3. If you do not want to add peanut butter or honey, then increase the amount of chocolate for binding.

Mix everything with the help of a spoon or spatula so that all ingredients are mixed evenly.

Step8:
Transfer this mix in the baking tin we had lined earlier. Be little quick in this step as we don’t want to cool down our mixture. Press it with a spoon or flat spatula inside the tin.

Step9:
Again we will melt the remaining 100 grams of chocolate as explained in step5. Pour this melted chocolate over the flattened mixture in the tin. To spread the chocolate till the edges either use spoon or tilt the tin so that chocolate will flow by itself and reach till the corners. Let it cool in the fridge for 2 hours.

Step10:
Once it is cooled completely, take the tin out of the fridge. Lift the chocolate-oats slab by holding the parchment paper from sides and keep it on a chopping board.

Step11:
After 2-3 minutes, cut the slab into bars using a sharp knife. I have cut it into pieces of 1″ x 3″ inches size. This gives you exactly 12 bars.

So now when you will lift these bars, on one side there is a layer of chocolate and on other side you can see beautiful golden grainy texture of oats, nuts & dried fruits.

Enjoy these delicious & healthy Fruit & Nut chocolate oats bar in your breakfast, mid day snack or happily pack them in your kids tiffin. Store them in an airtight container in refrigerator.