Nutty Chocolate Bar

We have chocolate, lots of nuts and peanut butter, who could have said No....

These are super easy and quick to make... The hard part is waiting for them to firm up overnight. I simply have no patience, so I just put the pan in the freezer for an hour, and voila! – they were good to go.

1½ cups rolled oats (use gluten-free if desired)
¼ cup sesame seeds
½ cup pecans
½ cup almonds
½ cup agave nectar
1 cup natural peanut butter (or nut butter of choice)
½ cup dark chocolate chips

Feel free to substitute your favorite nuts/seeds for any you don’t have on hand or don’t like. You could sub dried fruit for chocolate chips, too.

Line an 8×8 (or similar size) pan or baking dish with parchment paper. Leave extra on the sides to use as handles for removing the bars later.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, seeds and nuts; mix thoroughly.

Add agave nectar to the mixture and stir until well coated.

Add peanut butter (or other nut butter) to the mixture and mix until well combined.

Scoop the mixture into the prepared pan/baking dish and press firmly until it is evenly distributed. 

Original recipe instructs to allow mixture to then sit overnight (to firm up) before cutting into bars. As I mentioned, I’m not that patient. I put mine in the freezer for an hour or so and it seemed to work just fine.

Using the parchment paper handles, remove the entire block from pan/baking dish, then cut into 16 bars.

I found that the bars start to lose their firmness if left out for too long. Best to store them in the freezer (in my opinion).

When storing the bars in a container, place a sheet of parchment paper between the layers to avoid bars sticking together.