Let’s get one thing clear. I am not much of a baker. I have had more than my share of failures trying to develop a good-tasting calorie-dense bar. I can make an occasional loaf of bread and maybe some cookies, and I can cook just about anything else in the world, but baking just isn’t my thing. Sometimes, the trash can is the only place for some of my baking experiments.Â
WHAT YOU NEED
For this recipe, you will need:
Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup almond flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp corn starch
1 ½ cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup toasted almond flakes
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 banana
1 Tablespoon Chia seeds
2 cups sunflower butter
1/2 cup water (I accidentally used a cup, so I’ll show you how to correct that mistake later in the video)
1 cup coconut oil
You will also need two large mixing bowls, measuring cups, measuring spoons, a large wooden spoon, and a large kitchen knife.
THE RECIPE
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
Measure the various DRY ingredients and place them in one of the mixing bowls. One cup toasted almond flakes, two cups oats, one cup almond flour, one tablespoon corn starch, and one-and-a-half cups semi-sweet mini chocolate chips. Stir until all ingredients are well blended.
Separately, blend the salt, vanilla extract, water, coconut oil, chia seeds, and banana in a blender until all ingredients are one. I accidentally used a full cup of water and not a 1/2 cup. Â
Slowly add the wet blender ingredients to the dry ingredients bowl. Fold in the Sunflower Butter until well mixed, and a moist dough consistency is achieved.
I told you I’m not a baker. To correct this, I added in a tablespoon at a time of flour. You could also add in a bit more oats. This will absorb the excess water, but they will no longer be gluten-free. You want it moldable and for it to stick together, but not batter-like.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Put the dough into the center of the cookie sheet and press down, and spread it evenly across the cookie sheet. Press well to make sure bars hold together. You want about a one-quarter-inch thickness.
Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake at 325 degrees for 20 minutes. I had to drain off the oil in the cooking process. Drain off any excess oil. Turn oven down to 175 and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Place the sheet on a wire rack to cool more rapidly. Cut the bars on the sheet. Let cool to room temperature, remove the bars and place them on a wire rack for further drying and cooling.
NUTRITION
These are high caloric bars. Here is a breakdown of the calories and how you can estimate the calories per bar on your final recipe.
316 (corrected from video)Â calories – 2 cups oats
648 calories – 1 cup almond flour
31 calories – 1 tablespoon corn starch
1206 calories – 1 ½ cups mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
532 calories – 1 cup toasted almond flakes
12 calories – 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
105 calories – 1 banana
138 calories – 1 tablespoon Chia seeds
2,800 calories –Â 2 cups sunflower butter
1,951 calories – 1 cup coconut oil
This is a total of around 7,739 calories. You can divide this by the number of bars you have made, in my case 24, to give you a general estimate of the calories per bar. In my batch, each bar is roughly 322 calories, and which is two to three times the amount of calories in an average breakfast bar. Each bar has about 26 grams of healthy fats, 8 grams of protein, 19 carbohydrates, and a low 5 grams of sugar. The oats and protein will also help regulate the body’s sugar intake, which will help you avoid sugar spikes and troughs.
Because of the bars’ high calories and high-fat content, you don’t want to just snack on them. I designed these for consumption when you are hiking, engaged in activities, or bugging out, which is why we also need to discuss shelf-life.
MOISTURE AND FOOD PRESERVATION
On the counter, these will probably last for about a week or two, as is, owing to the high-fat content. In your freezer, they could last for years. The coconut oil and the oil in the nuts will turn slightly rancid in taste, and that’s your best test. When it comes to shelf-life, there are four main factors: pasteurization, storage temperature, moisture, and air.
I use the term pasteurization here loosely, as it is more generally applied to liquids. There is probably a better term. I mean the application of heat through the cooking process to kill microbes.
The other two factors that slow these food spoilers are air and temperature. If there is no oxygen, the food will last exponentially longer. Vacuum sealing could extend the life of these bars, and an oxygen absorber could sequester all the oxygen and extend shelf-life. Dry-ice storing or otherwise replacing the oxygen with heavier gasses could also preserve them longer. Finally, the colder, the better. You will get a longer shelf-life out of food that is stored in a cool pantry or root cellar than you will a countertop or somewhere the temperature fluctuates. I have to mention here another factor– exposure to light, but light will not degrade food as rapidly as these other factors.
The freeze dryer took the moisture level down to imperceptible. When I really worked to find some moisture, I found 7.5 percent moisture, and this was with an additional 8 hours drying time. That level of moisture is equivalent to powdered milk, so it’s super dry. If I seal these in mylar with an oxygen absorber right now, I’m confident they will be suitable for up to 18 months. Â
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Having a bar that is high-fat and high-calorie after a disaster can be a lifesaver. You want to know for sure that it’s edible and not spoiled or rancid. Do you have a go-to recipe for a calorie-dense homemade bar or a suggestion on how to store them longer? Let us know in the comments below. I would love to give your recipe a try.Â
If you would like to see more about the freeze-dryer I am using, you can check it out here: https://bit.ly/2YYjjCwÂ
I “tweaked” your recipe to make it store longer and achieve your goal. I did not add water, salt, nor oil because your ingredients already had sufficient amounts. I left out the corn starch because I am allergic to it. This is the recipe: 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup unbleached flour, 3 TBS ground chia seeds, 1 cup ground pumpkin seeds (because I am allergic to nuts). I put all this into mixer and blended. I then added 2 c sunflower butter, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 1 banana, and 1 cup microwave softened white chocolate chips which released more oil.… Read more »
That’s awesome. Thank you!
You can use coconut flour instead of regular if you used too much water, it absorbs more water than regular flour and is still gluten free
Thanks, Chris, for another helpful video! I could be wrong about this, but I believe if you ground up the chia seeds (using a coffee grinder is super simple), we’ll get more nutrients out of them. They’re typically difficult to digest whole. I can’t wait to make these! Thanks again!
Great article. Saving the recipe and looking forward to giving it a go.