No Bake Chocolate Energy Bar Cookies
I crave chocolate. I’ve always loved no bake cookies. It occurred to me that adding a few key ingredients would still make a great cookie, while adding protein and healthy fats to act more like a snack. They are more filling and less sugary than typical cookies. Of course, they are still a dessert, but now I can give them to my kids (or eat them all…) and know they are probably more on the granola bar end of the spectrum. I’d rather they eat these than the majority of granola bars I could buy in the store that are steeped in sugars and preservatives. Plus, these only take about 5 minutes to make.
No Bake Chocolate Energy Bar Cookies
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ cup milk
- ¼ cup butter (1/2 stick)
- 2 Tbs. Cocoa Powder
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- ¼ cup chia seeds
- ¼ cup sliced, blanched almonds
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ½ Tbs. vanilla extract (2 tsp.)
- Dash of salt
Bring Butter, milk, sugar and cocoa to a rolling boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and let boil about 1 minute while stirring. Add vanilla, salt and peanut butter, stirring until smooth. Add chia seeds, almonds and 1 cup of oats. Add additional ½ cup of oats as long as the mixture doesn’t start to look too dry.
Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Use a serving spoon to drop mixture into cookies (about 2 Tbs. per cookie). Allow to cool for about 30 minutes or until hardened.
If you want to cut out more sugar, I’m sure you could. All three of my kids loved these and I was glad to have a healthier option that they fully considered a dessert. Kniya said, “Oh, we’ve had these before!” So, clearly the additional ingredients didn’t make them stray too far from traditional no-bake cookies. Yum.
