Dark Chocolate Date and Oat Bars
Buttery oatmeal and almond shortbread with a creamy chocolate medjool date filling, and melty pools of dark chocolate.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups pitted medjool dates
- 1 cup hot water
- 2 tbsp dutch-processed cocoa powder
- ¼ tsp instant espresso powder
Oatmeal Base
- 2 ¼ cups almond flour
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3 tbsp brown sugar (or sub coconut sugar)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup chopped dark chocolate + more for topping (optional)
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 8x8” baking pan with parchment paper.
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Add dates, water, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt to a blender. Blend until smooth. Set aside to cool while preparing the filling.
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In a large mixing bowl, combine almond flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Stir in melted butter, maple syrup and vanilla until mixture is crumbly. Reserve 1/3 of the mixture for the topping. Press remaining mixture into bottom of prepared baking pan. Spread over date mixture, sprinkle on dark chocolate, then sprinkle on reserved topping and a few chopped chocolate bits.
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Bake for 25-30 minutes until light golden brown. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan before carefully transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool for at least 30 minutes to set. Serve with flaky sea salt.