Posted on by Cleverona Kitchen

Dates and Dark Chocolate Energy Bar Recipe

Having a go-to energy bar recipe is a clever thing. For one, making energy bars is a great way to be creative in the kitchen while doing your health a lot of good. They also help you stick to your healthy eating habits. 

Remember the post where we talked about meal prep ideas that will help you build healthy eating habits? In that post, we talked about how having a healthy snack keeps you from reaching for that doughnut or that bag of “healthy” potato chips in the office’s pantry.

Well, here is a fast and fun energy bar recipe that will help you with your healthy snacking goals. This recipe is meant to last you a week’s worth of snacks without the lengthy prep time.

Above all, this recipe includes heart-healthy ingredients because after all, February is Heart Healthy Month.

Ingredients

Dates and Dark Chocolate Energy Bar Recipe - Ingredient

3 cups whole grain rolled oats
1 cup honey
1 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 cup seedless dates, roughly chopped
1/2 cup cherry, roughly chopped
1/2 cup mix nuts
2 tsp cinnamon powder
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
Sea salt to taste

Procedure

Make your honey-oatmeal base. Microwave honey for 2 minutes.  In a bowl, thoroughly mix honey and rolled oats. Add in cinnamon and nut meg.

Dates and Dark Chocolate Energy Bar Recipe - Honey Oatmeal Base

Trivia: The high fiber content in oatmeal gets rid of excess cholesterol in the digestive system before they find their way into the bloodstream.
While the honey is still warm, fold in dark chocolate. Add in dates, cherry and mix nuts. Once everything is combined well, let the mixture rest for about 10 minutes. This gives the oatmeal enough time to soak.
Trivia: Dark chocolate has high levels of phenylethylamine a.k.a. "love drug". This chemical induces a mood elevator that is able to mimic the brain chemistry of a person in love.

Dates and Dark Chocolate Energy Bar Recipe - Raw Mix

Preheat oven to  300°F (150°C).

Dust your bake pan. Pour the mixture into the pan. Pack it tightly.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 300*F.

Once done, let stand to cool in a baking rack and then cut into squares or any shape of your choice.

Dates and Dark Chocolate Energy Bar Recipe - Prebaking

Bonus Recipe Notes You can always substitute oatmeal with your choice of ingredient. Oatmeal has been the primary choice for this recipe though since it cooks fast, almost always available in the pantry, and it is known to be a very heart-healthy food too.

Try not to grease your baking pan. If you are not into dusting, layer the pan with parchment paper instead. Remember, we are aiming at making healthier snacks here so we should leave no place for saturated fats which are found in butter. If you have to grease then use coconut oil instead.

Dates and Dark Chocolate Energy Bar Recipe

Do you need to make bigger portions of this recipe? Instead of making different batches, get a bigger baking pan. In this recipe, we used the new 11-inch Cleverona Essentials Non-stick Fry Pan. Yes, it is a fry pan but it can be used as a baking pan (just snap off the handle so it fits in the oven). This fry pan has a superior non stick cooking surface that lets you bake without the need of greasing and excessive dusting.