I hope no one’s offended by the sugar content of these treats, but I’m hoping the oats, almond butter, and banana offer sufficient nutritional compensation. I found some chocolate chunks (Enjoy Life brand) at a natural foods store that made these outrageously chocolatey, and in this case they were far superior to chips. I suppose you could swap a little extra banana for some of the maple syrup if you wanted to reduce the sugar content.

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cup oats, plus 2 Tbsp. (205 g)

¼ cup tapioca starch/flour (30 g)

¼ cup organic brown sugar

¼ tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. cinnamon

½ cup mashed banana

½ cup almond butter

½ cup maple syrup or agave nectar

1 ½ Tbsp. vanilla

½ cup dairy-free chocolate chunks or chips

Nonstick cooking spray

Directions:

1. In your food processor, process the oats on high until very fine. If you’re not weighing your flour, pour the oats back into the measuring cup to be sure you have a full 1¾ cup fine oat flour.

2. In your food processor, combine the oat flour, tapioca, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon until well mixed. Pour these dry ingredients into a large bowl.

3. In the now vacated food processor bowl, blend together the banana, almond butter, maple syrup, and vanilla.

4. Add the liquid ingredients from the processor to the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix well. The batter will be very thick. Stir in the chocolate chunks.

5. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray an 8×8 baking pan with nonstick spray. Spread the batter out evenly in it.

6. Bake for 27 to 32 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool thoroughly before slicing or they may fall apart. Good at room temperature, refrigerated, or frozen.

Wendy Andresen lives in Camden with her husband, Ray; her Sheltie, Sunshine; and her bunny, Rustle. She welcomes responses to her column at wendyandrayzer@yahoo.com.

filed under:
food for life, wendy andresen
Related Stories
Latest Articles