Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bars

One of these days, I am going to get good at the whole food photography thing.

I've been having a lot of fun experimenting with new homemade protein bar ideas this week. They're healthier, lower in sugar, and filled with high quality ingredients--not to mention super easy to make--so why wouldn't you just make them yourself. In the time it takes to make a bowl of oatmeal in the morning, you could whip up a batch of these and have them chilling in the fridge, ready to get topped with a thin layer of chocolate.

These might look like cookie dough, but they're actually made with cashew butter, coconut flour, vanilla whey protein powder, and a touch of maple syrup. I made my cashew nut butter myself in the food processor, but if you want, you could buy it at the store. (It's really expensive and I buy cashews in bulk anyway, so making it myself was just me being frugal.)

Let's get started!

Ingredients:

For the bars:

2 scoops vanilla whey protein powder, such as Jarrow

1 scoop coconut flour

3 tbs cashew butter

2 tbs real maple syrup

pinch of salt

1 tsp good quality vanilla

10 chocolate chips, chopped coarsely

vanilla almond milk as needed

For the topping:

2 tbs chocolate chips

1 tbs unsweetened vanilla almond milk 

Directions:

Whisk together protein powder and coconut flour. Add in the salt and whisk. Stir in the cashew butter and maple syrup and combine until crumbly. Add vanilla and a little bit of almond milk at a time until it comes together. The amount of almond milk you need to add will depend on the humidity that day. Sometimes you need more and sometimes you need less. Stir in the chopped chocolate chips (you could  also add some toasted walnuts or pecans if you want), transfer mixture to a small square baking pan or plastic container and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Melt the chocolate and almond milk in the microwave for about 20 seconds (keep an eye on it so it does not burn) and stir to combine into a glossy semi-ganache. Spread evenly over the bars and return to the fridge to cool. Once the top is firm, you can cut it into 5 or six pieces. Wrap them individually and store them in the refrigerator.

I promise my chocolate chip cookie dough protein bars don't have this greenish tinge in real life!