Coconut, Banana and Date Breakfast Bars
Healthy no-bake breakfast bars made with dates, bananas, oats, coconut and seeds. No refined sugar, naturally sweetened. Perfect for meal prep—keeps 5 days refrigerated or 1 month frozen.
Equipment
- Electronic digital scales optional
- Food processor OR Handblender preferably a food processor
- 20 cm square baking tin [ 8 inches]
- Baking Parchment
- Spatula OR pastry Card
- Wire Cooling Rack
Ingredients
- 250 grams Pitted soft dates - preferably Medjool [ 9 ounces, scant] Note 1
- 2 Ripe Bananas, peeled and broken into piece ideally super ripe brown bananas
- 200 grams Porridge Oats [ 7 ounces]
- 60 gram Wholemeal Flour [ 5 Tablespoons] I use Rye Flour
- 30 gram desiccated coconut [2 Tablespoons]
- 150 ml Mild Olive Oil [2/3 cup]
- 3 Tablespoon maple or agave syrup I use ½ of each
- 2 Tablespoon almond or soya milk, OR coconut cream Note 2
- 120 grams Mixed Seeds [ 7/8 cup] split in half Note 3
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C [350 F] , fan 160C [320 F]. gas 4 and line a 20 cm [8 inches] square tin with baking paper, allowing the edgs to overhang the sides.
- Put all the ingredients [half the seed mixture] in the bowl of a food processor and blitz to make rough but well-combined mixture Note 4
- Spread evenly into the prepared tin and smooth with the pastry card or spatula. Sprinkle over evenly the remaining half of the seed mixture.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until firm to the touch and slightly golden on top. Remove from the oven and leae in the tin for a few minutes and then lift onto a wire rack to cool, using the baking paper as handles.
- Cut into 16 squares- they will firm up as they cool. Note 5
Notes
Note 1. Heat the kettle and pour over enough hot/boiling water to just cover the dates and leave on for about 10 minutes and drain. This softens the dates and allows the mixture to whiz easier. I use the date liquid to make a cup of tea or use it to water plants after the liquid has cooled.
Note 2. If you don't need to keep this vegan you can use regular milk
Note 3. I use 60 gram untoasted pumpkin seeds, 40 grams raw sunfower seeds and 20 grams chia seeds
Note 4. If you are using a hand blender, put all the ingredients into a arge mixing bowl and carefully use the hand bender to combine the ingredients- take special care to get the whole dates roughly chopped though the mixture.
Note 5. The bars will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container, or can be frozen for up to 1 month.