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
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C (fan overn). Line a square baking dish with tinfoil greased with a the olive or rapeseed oil.
- Take a large mixing bowl, and add the oats, milled chia/flax seed and cashews. Save a few of the cashews for topping.
- 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.
- Add the coffee and the mashed banana to the dry ingredients, and stir to combine.
- Add the nut butter/water mixture, followed by the honey, and stir again to mix both in.
- 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.
- Add the melted chocolate to the batter, and stir again.
- Lastly, add the splash of milk and stir again.
- Tip the batter into your baking dish, and spread it out evenly. Add a few cashews on top.
- 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.
- Allow to cool for about 30 minutes before slicing the squares up and giving them a taste!
- 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