Satisfy your chocolate craving with these healthy no bake double chocolate fudge protein bars! Soft, fudgy, and crazy chocolatey, these vegan and gluten-free bars make a perfect snack.
Oh hey!
Fancy seeing you here. On a Saturday, of all days.
I don’t actually think I’ve ever posted on a Saturday in the almost-3-years that I’ve been blogging here on Spoons, but I wanted to try experimenting with my posting schedule a little bit to see if I could find a better fit. What I was doing before was getting a little too difficult to juggle, so I figured it was time to introduce a few tweaks and see what happens.
Hopefully I have the same kind of luck as I had with my latest kitchen experiments…
Oh, hi [accidentally amazing] double chocolate fudge protein bars! You’re looking mighty fine.
I like to pretend that I’m a whizz in the kitchen (at least when it comes to baking/no-baking), but the truth is that a lot of my recipes are the result of tossing a bunch of ingredients together and hoping for the best. Either that or tossing a bunch of ingredients together thinking that they’ll turn out one way, and having them turn out completely differently.
Case in point: these protein bars…
I labelled them “double chocolate” because they’re made with both cocoa powder and chocolate chips, but what you don’t know is that I originally meant to call them “double chocolate chip,” only… I ran into a little SNAFU when I went to add the chocolate chips.
add the chocolate chips into the dough instead of… err… melt them into it.
See, the recipe involves heating up the wet ingredients so that they do a better job of holding everything together (it really does make a huge difference), but I kind of didn’t take into account the fact that doing so would also make the dough warm when I mixed everything together, thereby making the chocolate chips melt into the dough when I added them in. Womp, womp.
Luckily, this just so happened to be one of those rare occasions where my derpiness actually worked in my favour, because these bars? These ones right here?
They’re pretty darn amazing (read: they’re freaking epic).
Soft, sweet, fudgy, chocolatey. They’re sinfully delicious without actually being sinful at all. The base is made from a mix of oat flour and protein powder, held together with brown rice syrup (or honey), nut butter, and melted chocolate. These bars are vegan and gluten-free, depending on the ingredients you choose, and I guarantee that they’ll satisfy any kind of chocolate craving that comes your way.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go satisfy mine…
- 1/4 cup nut/seed butter*
- ½ cup brown rice syrup, or honey if not strictly vegan
- 1 Tbsp. coconut oil
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
- 3 Tbsp. chocolate chips
- 1 cup regular or quick oats, ground into a flour
- 1/2 cup crispy rice cereal**
- 3/4 cup (~60g) protein powder
- extra mini chocolate chips, for topping
- Line an 8x8 baking pan with a sheet of aluminum foil or parchment paper, leaving a few inches of overhang on the sides to allow for easy removal. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add nut butter, coconut oil, and rice syrup,stirring until the nut butter is melted and fully combined with the rice syrup. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently to avoid burning, and add cocoa powder and salt, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and add in chocolate chips, allowing the heat from the nut butter mixture to melt them before stirring until smooth. Let cool slightly.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine oat flour, crispy rice cereal, and protein powder. Add chocolate nut butter mixture, stirring until well combined.
- Transfer the mixture into your prepared baking pan, using your fingers or a spatula to ensure that it is pressed down firmly and evenly. Top with extra chocolate chips. Cover pan with a sheet of foil and place into the fridge or freezer to set, at least 30 minutes, but preferably closer to 2 hours.
- When mixture has set, remove from pan using the foil overhang, and use a sharp knife to cut into individual bars. Bars are best stored in a sealed container at room temperature.
** make sure to use a certified gluten-free brand if you need these to be GF. Or, if you don't have any cereal on hand, you can easily sub it out with an equal amount of oats.
Looking for more no-bake bar recipes? Try one of these!
No Bake Double Chocolate Fudge Protein Bites
Do you do much blog reading on the weekends? Do you mind the switch in days?
What was the last chocolatey thing you ate?
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I'm Amanda - health coach, cookbook author, recipe developer, makeup junkie, oatmeal addict, and the author of Running with Spoons - a blog dedicated to healthy eating.
These look delish! I just tried your no-bake chocolate sunflower whatever-the-name-is bars–they make a great little back pocket snack for bike rides. I just wanted to point out–your directions mention coconut oil, but it’s not in the list of ingredients?
A Saturday post, which is relatively short and involves double chocolate. What’s not to like about that?! They look great. Derpiness for the win.
Yum! Love the look of these and the crispy rice cereal makes them fun!
Loving the look of anything that has rice krispies in it…you’re on a roll this week!
I also think most of life is throwing everything into the world and seeing what sticks, so your recipe method is pretty sound 🙂
I will have to try these ASAP! I have huge chocolate cravings but try to eat healthy for the most part. I will definitely be trying! Thanks!!
I had ice cream last night at Cold Stone so I just had my chocolate fix 🙂 I do read blogs on the weekends – sometimes more than other times, depends on how busy I am but I do look forward to catching up on my blog reading mostly on Saturday mornings.
Last time I had chocolate was just a minute ago and the usual good old [or hopefully not old] Lindt.
Next time having chocolate I wouldn’t mind those. But given I’m staying with relatives I won’t be able to prepare them as a travel snack for tomorrow. Too bad, really. They look awesome either way. Mmmh, chocolate.
I don’t have a set reading schedule just as I don’t have a set posting schedule, sooooo….I say post when you feel like it works for you!! I know you do this on a more serious level than I do though so my input may not be helpful haha. What I do know, is that these look KILLER!
Last chocolate-y thing: Chocolate covered jumbo marshmallow! So fluffy and delicious, I could die.
I once did the same exact thing when I made cookies. The dough was warm and it melted the chocolate chips to make a “swirl” effect and they were some of the best damn cookies. It’s funny how things work out!
I think Saturdays post are good! Not many people post on Saturdays so it gives me something to read 🙂
These bars DO look mighty fine! I need to give them a try. I’m always sad when there are no blog updates in my inbox on Saturdays, so I’m all for the day switch 🙂
i kinda like the saturday switch. I was going to do that too. I feel like fridays are just overkill. Or i’m just tired. I usually have more time to read on saturday and sunday anyway. Now if only i could have a bar while i do that. PINNED!
I don’t do a lot of blog reading on the weekends – it just depends on how much time I have. Fortunately, you caught me with about 40 minutes of free time today 😉
Last chocolate-y thing I ate – chocolate after lunch yesterday. mmmm chocolate.
Holy chocolate moly! Death by chocolate indeed! And you say that you aren’t a wiz in the kitchen… you aren’t a wiz rather you are a master.
I check up on blogs everyday so it makes me happy to see ya 🙂
Last chocolatey thing I ate was a chocolate protein shake. It was delicious.
I’m currently eating chocolate peanut butter sorbet, so I think that would have to be the last chocolate thing I ate. I sometimes post on Saturdays but it depends on what my work schedule looks like or if I have something to post. Have a great weekend!
I need these in my life ASAP! I am a huge fan of chocolate, and protein bars, and oats. Together they make the perfect trifecta!
these look super delicious and full of energy 😀
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Oh, the fudge. Incredible. Reminds me of the chocolate truffle at Whole Foods in Boulder. Minus the junk and minus the price. And rice cereal . I think I haven’t bought this since….ok, I never did, cause I was a child and Momma bought them. High time.
Could I replace the protein powder with something else? Or is it necessary?
Hi Amanda!
I’m addicted to your mastermind recipes! Just made these bars and cant get enough!! Wondering if you have nutritional info for them? Forgive me if you do and I’ve missed it…I tried looking on your website to see if you include it with your recipes. Thankful for you!! 😉
I’m so glad you like them, Kristin! I haven’t started including nutritional info for my recipes just yet, but it’s sometimes I’m thinking about introducing in the future. You can use a calculator like this one to figure it out – http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator
Does it matter what flavor protein powder we use in this recipe?
thanks!
Nope! Not really. I use either chocolate or vanilla usually, but the chocolate flavour is strong enough to overpower the flavour of most protein powders.
Hey there – We’re big fans of your recipes and usually have great success with them – until this one. What did we do wrong? I made these today and followed the amounts and directions – and ended up with literal crumble. Mine is currently in a bag so we can use it as cereal topping. 🙁 What did I mess up on…? Any ideas?
I’m so sorry about that, Rissa! I’m honestly not sure what it could have been, but my first guess is possibly the protein powder that you used? Different protein powders absorb liquids differently, and could yield different results. If you’re having a hard time getting them to stick, you could add splashes of almond milk a tablespoon or two at a time to get it to moisten up. That’s how I always handled stubborn recipes that won’t stick.