Chocolate-Avocado Breakfast Bars
These breakfast bars are sweet, crunchy, and incredibly satisfying.
Ingredients
- 2 cups oats
- ½ cup almond meal
- ½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted, plus 2 teaspoons
- 3 tablespoons amaranth "popped" (see note)
- ½ pound dark chocolate finely chopped
- ½ ripe avocado medium-large
- 3 tablespoons honey
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 375°F, and line an 8x8-inch) baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside. (Use a large piece that will cover the sides and cut slits in each corner so that it will lay flat.)
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Add the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut and salt into a large mixing bowl. Drizzle with the coconut oil, mix until everything is evenly coated, and then pour the mixture onto a baking sheet and roast in the preheated 375°F oven until it's golden brown, about 20 minutes. (Do not wash the bowl you mixed in -- set it aside for later.)
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While the oat mixture is roasting, melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler and mash the avocado with a fork until it's as smooth as possible -- you will need ½ cup. (Here’s a photographic guide to peeling and cutting an avocado.)
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Pour the melted chocolate into the saved mixing bowl and add the mashed avocado and honey. Mix until smooth.
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Once the oat mixture is out of the oven pour it into the chocolate-avocado mixture, along with the popped amaranth.
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Stir until everything is evenly blended and pour it into the parchment-lined baking pan. Use your hands to firmly press down, spreading it evenly into the corners of the pan. Then use a large, flat-bottomed metal spatula to press down again, to flatten it evenly.
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Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, and ideally overnight, before cutting it into 12 evenly sized bars.
Recipe Notes
To pop amaranth:
Heat a dry, large, deep skillet -- that has a lid -- over high heat until extremely hot. Carefully add about 1 teaspoon of amaranth grains, cover the pot, and allow them to pop while shaking side-to-side constantly. If they don't start popping within about 5-10 seconds, the pan isn't hot enough.
As soon as the popping slows, quickly and carefully pour into a large bowl. The goal is to get as many to pop as possible, but not to let them burn - if there are some unpopped ones, that's okay. Repeat the process, 1 teaspoon at a time, until all the amaranth is popped.