{"id":14077,"date":"2011-08-19T08:45:29","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T12:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/?p=14077"},"modified":"2011-08-19T08:45:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-19T12:45:29","slug":"buzzin-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2011\/08\/buzzin-bars\/","title":{"rendered":"Buzzin Bars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar2.jpg\" data-rel=\"attachment-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14081\" title=\"Buzzin Bar\" src=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar2-449x300.jpg 449w, https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar2.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Last week Scott left for a business trip that had him away from the house for about a week. \u00a0He was flying off to San Francisco to geek out about code and be in his element.<\/p>\n<p>Because I knew that eating times might be odd and because I know Scott, this meant he would need to take some food along with him.<\/p>\n<p>He was taking a carry on which meant that the food had to be small, easy to carry, and not prone to spoilage. \u00a0And since I knew that these could very well be a meal source, I knew that they had to be jam packed with good stuff. \u00a0Stuff that could get you through a couple of hours.<\/p>\n<p>I like using soaked dates in bars and coffee cakes because it adds a nice sweetness without being over powering. \u00a0Plus they are a great source of fiber and potassium.<\/p>\n<p>Plus I wanted to do something fun so I added an extra little kick to these bars.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Andrea&#8217;s Buzzin Bars<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>10, dried and pitted dates<\/li>\n<li>1C Coffee + 2TBSP<\/li>\n<li>2C Oats<\/li>\n<li>1C White Whole Wheat Flour<\/li>\n<li>2TBSP Unsweetened Cocoa Powder<\/li>\n<li>1\/2C All Natural Peanut Butter<\/li>\n<li>1\/2C Dark Chocolate Chips<\/li>\n<li>1TBSP Maple Syrup<\/li>\n<li>1\/2C Unsweetened Coconut Milk (Not the kind in a can, the kind in the refrigerated section)<\/li>\n<li>2tsp Vanilla Extract<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In a small to medium sized bowl, add the dates and pour 1C of hot coffee over the dates. \u00a0Allow to soak for 1\/2 hour to an hour. \u00a0You can use leftover coffee that has been reheated.<\/p>\n<p>Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease an 8&#215;8 baking dish (either with oil or nonstick spray).<\/p>\n<p>Drain dates and add to a food processor. \u00a0Pulse just until the dates start to break up. \u00a0Add in the oats, flour, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips. \u00a0Pulse again until the oats start to break down and the chips start to break down as well. \u00a0The chips might not break down as easy, don&#8217;t worry about this.<\/p>\n<p>In a medium sized mixing bowl, add in the coconut milk, 2TBSP of coffee, the peanut butter, maple syrup, and the vanilla extract. \u00a0Whisk until the <abbr class='c2c-text-hover' title='Peanut Butter'>PB<\/abbr> is well incorporated into the mix. \u00a0Add this mixture to the date mixture, and pulse until well combined.<\/p>\n<p>This will be an extremely thick batter. \u00a0It will not be a pourable batter and you may have to remove it from the processor and mix with your hands a few times. \u00a0Put this mixture into the baking dish, you&#8217;ll have to press it into place. \u00a0Again, remember this is a really thick batter.<\/p>\n<p>Place in oven and bake for about 10 -15 minutes. \u00a0Just till the top starts to get a little browned. \u00a0It doesn&#8217;t take long at all for these bars to set.<\/p>\n<p>Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before cutting. \u00a0Cut into squares and serve immediately. \u00a0Or allow to cool longer once cut, place in a storage container and keep in fridge until you&#8217;re ready to eat one. \u00a0I suggest heating it up slightly before eating.<\/p>\n<p>These also freeze very well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar.jpg\" data-rel=\"attachment-image-1\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14080\" title=\"Buzzin Bar\" src=\"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar-449x300.jpg 449w, https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/buzzin_bar.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>These smell exactly like a no bake cookie. \u00a0The peanut butter comes out as a very strong smell and flavor in these bars. \u00a0The coffee is just enough to enhance the chocolate and not dominate the flavor in any way.<\/p>\n<p>The bars are very dense because they are so jam packed with goodness. \u00a0Fiber from the oats and dates, protein from the peanut butter, and a little fun from the chocolate.<\/p>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t have coffee or don&#8217;t want to use coffee, you can soak the dates in hot water. \u00a0Use 2 TBSP of coconut milk in place of the 2 TBSP of coffee in the bar batter.<\/p>\n<p>Great as a breakfast or a snack.<\/p>\n<p>Bonus, you don&#8217;t even have to cook these! \u00a0You can roll them into little ball shapes and serve them up as a twist on a truffle. Yes there is flour in here but there is no &#8220;uncooked flour&#8221; taste when you eat these bars raw. \u00a0All you get is a straight forward chocolate and peanut butter combo.<\/p>\n<p>I did give <em>all<\/em> of these to Scott to take on his trip. \u00a0That much chocolate and <abbr class='c2c-text-hover' title='Peanut Butter'>PB<\/abbr> needs to stay close to home as well. \u00a0I had some for breakfast and they are chocolatey delish!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you make bars at home? \u00a0They are perfect for snacks on the go!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Have fun guys, and remember, always play with your food! \u00a0Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week Scott left for a business trip that had him away from the house for about a week. \u00a0He was flying off to San Francisco to geek out about code and be in his element. Because I knew that eating times might be odd and because I know Scott, this meant he would need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[78,8],"tags":[63,37,49,76,64],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KYWa-3F3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}