Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

We headed out for a family mountain biking trip on a recent Saturday morning.  It was a fantastic ride through a beautiful park. 

When I stumbled across this recipe for Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Bars on the Williams Sonoma website a few weeks ago, I was actually searching for a different recipe but the ingredient list for these bars caught my eye - whole wheat flour, oats, walnuts, and dark chocolate.  I kept this recipe in the back of my mind, just waiting for a perfect opportunity to make this healthy snack. 

Opportunity came knocking a few weekends ago when we decided to go on a family bike ride.  We are I am always starving at the end of a long ride and usually craving carbohydrates.  I knew that this was the perfect recipe for post workout fuel.

Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients:

• 2 tsp. plus 12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup walnut pieces
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tbs. vanilla extract
• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Directions:  

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with aluminum foil and lightly grease the foil with the 2 tsp. butter.

Spread the walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly, then chop coarsely; set aside. Leave the oven set at 350°F.

In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, oats, baking powder and salt; set aside.







In another large bowl or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat together the 12 Tbs. butter and the brown sugar until light and well blended.

 
Beat in the eggs one at a time, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or beat on low speed with the electric mixer until just combined.

 Stir in the chocolate and walnuts.

 





Spread the batter evenly in the prepared baking dish.
(Sorry about the poor lighting in this picture.)





Bake until the top is golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 35 minutes.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the bar cool completely in the pan. Use the edges of the foil to lift the bar out of the pan onto a cutting board.

Cut into 24 bars.

 
Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Makes 24 bars.  I packed mine into a wax paper lined Tupperware container to take on the picnic. 

The 12 mile bike ride was awesome.  (No one popped a tire and there were only minor injuries - mostly on me.)

This is a picture from the very beginning of our ride:

This is a picture from the very end of our bike ride:

Needless to say we were all tired and hungry from our biking adventure.  We quickly found a table in the shade and set up our picnic.

We had other things besides the dark chocolate oatmeal bars but you will have to wait until tomorrows blog post to find out what else we ate at our picnic.

I will say that I am not going to make these again for a very long time.  These oatmeal bars were so good that I ate nearly 1/2 the batch myself!  I'm not sure why they were so addicting but they were so good - especially after our bike ride.  I just couldn't stop myself from eating them.  Thank goodness that there were a few healthy ingredients in them. 

If you need a post workout snack to refuel your body, try these dark chocolate oatmeal bars.  Just be careful - they're addictive.

 Ciao!



Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Bars
Ingredients:

• 2 tsp. plus 12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup walnut pieces
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tbs. vanilla extract
• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Directions: 

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with aluminum foil and lightly grease the foil with the 2 tsp. butter.

Spread the walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly, then chop coarsely; set aside. Leave the oven set at 350°F.
In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, oats, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In another large bowl or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat together the 12 Tbs. butter and the brown sugar until light and well blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or beat on low speed with the electric mixer until just combined. Stir in the chocolate and walnuts.

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared baking dish. Bake until the top is golden brown and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 35 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the bar cool completely in the pan. Use the edges of the foil to lift the bar out of the pan onto a cutting board. Cut into 24 bars. Serve immediately, or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Makes 24 bars.