Hello Darlings! Chef Tess is here for another fantastic taste of divine happiness. I’ve been making homemade breakfast bars for years. In the olden-days I didn’t make these with almond flour (since we don’t have any gluten-free issues in my family). The original tutorial post is here: Homemade Whole Grain Nutri-Bars. Now that I’m lower sugar, and baking lower carbohydrate the use of almond-flour has been a life saver! These bars are gluten-free, grain-free, Paleo-friendly and naturally sweetened. A few months ago I introduced Almond-pistachio breakfast nutri-bars to my blog readers. I now run out the door every morning with breakfast in-hand! School is in session. Life is always in session. When do I have time to bake something for my family? I’ve resorted to baking breakfast bars late in the evening on Saturday. Yes, it is still a priority to me to make sure there are healthy snacks around. A few weeks ago we had the idea around here to make the outside cake-wrap on these bars from a chocolate almond-flour brownie dough. As always, we’re still keeping with the natural sweeteners, low-glycemic, guilt-free, gluten-free happiness theme (also insert sunshine, lollie-pops and rainbows… That’s how we roll).
Moment of silence for the good Dutch Baker’s Cocoa. Um…yeah…I seriously have more of this in my pantry than I should ever admit openly. Wait. I just admitted it openly didn’t I? Healthy Chocolate Waffles and today’s breakfast bars have to be made at least once a week in order for me to survive, right? You know what I like most about this cocoa? This cocoa has a smooth mellow chocolate flavor with a lingering depth and richness. I’ve never seen its equal. Ever.
Dough: Combine all the dry ingredients with a wire whisk in a large mixing bowl. Add the liquid ingredients and stir until well blended.
I use vanilla bean paste. Regular vanilla can be used in place of it in your recipe, but I just love this stuff.
The dough should seem rather stiff.
Forming Bars: Roll the dough between two pieces of baking parchment paper in a rectangle (1/4 inch thick).
To ease in the spreading out of the dough, I lightly coat the top with a small amount of coconut oil. This will also help keep the parchment paper from sticking to the dough.
Cover with a clean layer of parchment paper and roll thin, about 1/4 inch.
Remove the top paper and divide into 5 equal strips.
Spoon the berry mixture into a pastry bag. Squeeze along the middle of the dough strip.
Gently roll the dough around the filling mixture, slightly over-lapping in the middle.
Roll the bar over so it is seam-side down, about2 inches apart. Bake in a 325 degree oven 17-19 minutes. Cut into a 2 inch bars with a sharp knife. Yield approximately 24 bars.
Serve warm right from the pan.
Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess
