Chocolate & Zucchini
Wholesome Banana Chocolate Breakfast Bars
When Heidi posted about her friend Nikki's healthful cookies a couple of months ago, my curiosity was piqued, and the recipe firmly affixed to my mind's corkboard*.
And as soon as I had a few browning bananas on hand -- somemight accuse me of letting them overripen on purpose, but that's justlibel and they'll be hearing from my attorney -- I knew just how to putthem to use.
I made a few modifications to the original recipe: 1- I usedalmond butter rather than coconut oil, which I didn't have. 2- Idecreased the amount of chocolate -- completely out of character, Iknow, but I stopped when the chocolate-to-batter ratio felt right tome. 3- I didn't add the cinnamon because I'm not very fond of thebanana-cinnamon pairing. 4- I also omitted the baking powder: there isvirtually no gluten in the recipe**, so it didn't seem like a leavenerwould have much effect.
Oh, and instead of shaping bite-size cookies from the batter, Isimply poured and baked the whole thing in a rectangular dish, and cutit into squareish bars after the fact: it was just easier, andbecause I knew we'd need a few days to eat our way through them and thefat content in the recipe was not very high, cutting servings as wewent would help keep the texture fresh and moist.
And I'm happy to report it was a smashing success: these vegan oatmeal bars(or cookies) call for no sugar, and rely instead on the sweeteningpower of mashed bananas, and such flavor-bolstering ingredients as darkchocolate and grated coconut. The result is a discreetly sweet, buthighly tasty confection that feels like a treat, but can be eaten forbreakfast (it pairs well with clementines) without getting the dreadedsugar crash in mid-morning.
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* Actually, I'm lying about the corkboard: to file and organize my digital notes, lists, and recipes, I use this handy Notebook tool for Mac OS X.
** Pure oats don't contain gluten, but there can be a smidgen incommercial oats that are processed along with other grains. If youcan't have gluten at all, make sure the oats you use are labeled asgluten-free.
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