protein bars on wood cutting board with a brown striped cloth napkin behind

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars

Written by on in Recipes, Snack Ideas
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Most protein bars that I get from the store are just too much for me. I’m not exactly sure what it is about them, but I have a hard time loving them. I am trying to get more protein in my diet, and thought I would jump on the make your own bandwagon too. These peanut butter protein bars are so good, you might have to hide them from yourself.

I wanted these to be very easy to make and not feel “heavy”. I don’t like feeling totally stuffed after eating one protein bar. I just need a snack. For this recipe, I used enjoy life mini chocolate chips. If you need it to be completely dairy free, sub out the milk. The milk I used was Fairelife whole milk. I like that milk because it has a higher protein content and is lactose free. The lactose free milk is easier for my body to digest. Look for a milk substitute that has a higher protein content if you can.

protein bars on wood cutting board with a brown striped cloth napkin behind

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Bars

A delicious gluten free protein bar with rolled oats made into flour, peanut butter, and mini chocolate chips sweetened with pure maple syrup. Ready in 30 minutes. No baking required.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Freeze Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Snack
Cuisine American

Equipment

  • 1 8×8 baking pan
  • parchment paper
  • Blender-high powered
  • spatula, measuring cups, spoons, knife, etc

Ingredients
  

  • 2 1/2 C gluten free rolled oats
  • 1 1/2 scoops gluten free vanilla protein powder
  • 1/4 C cacao powder if you use cocoa powder, you may need more; I use the organic cacao powder at Costco
  • 1 C smooth peanut butter
  • 1/3 C pure maple syrup
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1/3-1/2 C mini chocolate chips I like Enjoy Life
  • 1/4 C + 1-2 tsp milk I use Fairlife whole milk

Instructions
 

  • Line a 8×8 square baking pan with parchment paper
  • In a blender, pulse oats until they become flour. Add protein powder, cacao powder, peanut butter, maple syrup, sea salt and milk. Blend well. Dough should be firm, but still moldable. If the blender is struggling and the dough is too stiff, add more milk one tsp at a time. Do not add too much or your bars will not hold together.
  • Remove the blade carefully from your blender if necessary. Then scoop dough into a small bowl. Add chocolate chips and stir until mixed evenly.
  • Pour dough into prepared pan and press dough down evenly throughout the pan.
  • Place enough parchment paper over the top of the pan to cover the dough, and freeze for about 20 minutes.
  • Take the bars out of the pan using the parchment paper. With a sharp knife, cut into bars. This should make about 12-14 bars depending on how you cut them up.
    protein bars cut up
  • Wrap in plastic wrap individually and place in a freezer zip baggie. Store in the fridge.

Notes

A variation of this is to add 3/4 C chopped roasted peanuts.  You don’t need to change anything else in the recipe.  Just add these in when you add in the chocolate chips.  I chop these in my blender, then dump them out into a bowl first.  Then I blend the oats and continue on with the recipe.
Keyword chocolate chip, easy recipe, homemade, peanute butter, protein bars, quick and easy

I hope that you will give my peanut butter chocolate chip protein bars a try. I always feel like the more things we can make ourselves, the better. You can control what ingredients you put in and that gives me peace of mind.

Have fun with this recipe. You could try add a bit of cinnamon. I love cinnamon with peanut butter and chocolate. Let me know how it goes.

Emma

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