Well, Christmas is now behind us, and I hope you all had a very happy holidays! I received a Nespresso machine from Santa (he must know I adore coffee!) and also some lovely dark chocolate, and I decided to see if I could come up with a recipe that nicely combined both of those two delicious ingredients. These mocha oat squares were the result – I hope you love them as much as I do!

Recipe (Makes 12 Squares)

Ingredients

• 1 tsp of olive or rapeseed oil
• 1 tbsp of peanut butter (or other nut butter) + 1 tbsp of boiled water
• 2 tbsp of honey
• 1 tbsp of milled flax or chia seeds (you could use ground almonds here either)
• 1 banana, mashed until almost liquid-like in consistency
• 1 cup of freshly brewed coffee (about 150ml) (instant coffee will do fine either, I used my Nepresso machine to make a Lungo size cup!)
• A splash of milk (about 2 tbsp)
• 150g of quick cook oats (I use Flavahans progress oatlets)
• 50g of 70% or above dark chocolate (my favourite is 85%)
• 1 handful of raw cashews, roughly chopped

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C (fan overn). Line a square baking dish with tinfoil greased with a the olive or rapeseed oil.
2. Take a large mixing bowl, and add the oats, milled chia/flax seed and cashews. Save a few of the cashews for topping.
3. Next, take a small bowl and combine the nut butter and boiled water – get the water from a just-boiled kettle, taking care with the heat. Use a spoon to combine the nut butter and water.
4. Add the coffee and the mashed banana to the dry ingredients, and stir to combine.
5. Add the nut butter/water mixture, followed by the honey, and stir again to mix both in.
6. Break up the dark chocolate into small pieces, and melt them in the microwave – again, take care with the hot bowl when removing it from the microwave.
7. Add the melted chocolate to the batter, and stir again.
8. Lastly, add the splash of milk and stir again.
9. Tip the batter into your baking dish, and spread it out evenly. Add a few cashews on top.
10. Bake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes – a fork stuck into the centre of the mix should come out mostly clean at this stage, and the cashews on top will be browned.
11. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes before slicing the squares up and giving them a taste!
12. Store in a sealed Tupperware or other container for up to four days in the fridge. You can also freeze the squares too if you’re saving some of a batch for a later date.

Enjoy guys! Tag me if you try this recipe out as always – @theirishbalance on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook!

Ciara 🙂 x