70% Dark Chocolate Granola Bars

After my first post about needing to choose 70%+ dark chocolate to reap the benefits of what the cocoa bean has to offer. I was inspired to make up treat that combined a few areas I tend to be passionate about.

·       Chocolate

·       Easy to eat healthy snacks for active people

·       Cooking

·       Fitness

So I searched around in the cupboard for what I thought constitutes easy to eat snacks for people on the go. Out came the dried fruits, cereals, nuts, and such, combined them together with some chocolate and came up with 70% DC Granola bars

Now I don’t have scales. I love to cook but I don’t bake, so everything is done on eye, so don’t worry about the measurements exactly.

Ingredients & Method

·       200g oats

·       80g of seeds (I had pumpkin and sunflower)

Lay flat on a baking tray and bake these off in the oven for 8 minutes at around 180c, ensure you toss them around halfway through and rotate the pan.

*If you have an oven like mine that can sometimes cook hotter on one side they will burn.

Whilst they are roasting away combine your other ingredients in a bowl

·       100g of nuts mix - cashew, almonds – walnuts would also work well.

·       50g of dried fruit – cranberries, raisins and chopped dates

·       20g chia seeds

·       Cinnamon powder – a shake or two depending on how much you like it

Once you take the seeds and oats out of the oven leave to cool down, I put mine in another flat pan and put them in the freezer to cool off quicker and stop them cooking any longer.

Next is your gel to bring it all together

·       150g of honey

·       150g of coconut oil

·       100g of light brown sugar

Put this all into a saucepan and gently heat until it has all melted away. When it starts to bubble, take it off the heat. Allow to cool for a minute.

Now combine your oat mix to the nuts and berries and then add the hot mix of honey and combine all together. Leave to cool off for 15 – 20 minutes.

·       Half a bar of Tony Chocolonley – Blue 70% Dark Chocolate

·       1 tablespoon of Mani Life chunky peanut butter (other brands are available)

Chop the chocolate up and into small pieces and then add the peanut butter and chocolate once the mix has cooled off for 15 minutes add to the granola mix. Mix these through and then lay flat on a baking tray that is lined with either baking paper or tin foil so that it is ready to go into the fridge.

Leave in the fridge for a couple of hours and then chop up in suitable chunks, ready for you, when you need that on the go snack. I managed to get around 14 chunky sized pieces.

Be warned with the hot weather at the moment the chocolate can quickly melt, so I have been keeping them in a fridge and then bringing and wrapping one or two with when I know I’ll be busy and need a quick snack.

Hope you enjoy.

Drop a comment below to let me know how they worked out for you