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. I like that they are dairy free and free of so many other allergens.

If you need it to be completely dairy free, you could use almond or oat milk. I used to use Fairllife milk when my youngest was having a hard time when she was younger drinking milk or eating cheese. Now that she has grown out of that, we just use whole milk in this recipe. Feel free to use what works for your family!

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
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 2 1/2 C gluten free rolled oats
  • 1 scoops gluten free vanilla protein powder if a large scoop, may only want 3/4 scoop
  • 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 whole milk
  • 1/8-1/4 C chopped peanuts (optional)
  • —

Equipment

  • 1 8×8 baking pan
  • parchment paper
  • blender
  • hand mixer with beater paddles
  • large mixing bowl
  • spatula, measuring cups, spoons, knife, etc

Method
 

  1. Line a 8×8 square baking pan with parchment paper
  2. In a blender, pulse oats until they are about half flour consistency and half oats.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, add the blended oats, protein powder, cacao powder, peanut butter, maple syrup, sea salt, milk, chocolate chips, and chopped peanuts(if using).
  4. Using a hand mixer, mix all ingredients until well blended.
  5. Pour dough into prepared pan and press dough down evenly throughout the pan.
  6. Place enough parchment paper over the top of the pan to cover the dough, and freeze for about 20 minutes.
  7. 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
  8. 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.

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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