Almond Butter Breakfast / Energy Bars; Paleo/Primal-friendly, Grain free, Gluten free
I’m back! After quite the break (4 months?!), I have finally come back to a point where I have time/energy to cook, bake, and blog. I have a good excuse, though – I promise! I’m 6+ months pregnant with our second child, and feeling good! The first 3 to 4 months I felt so nauseous all the time, the kitchen was not a great place for me to be. But I’m here again, and that’s what matters, right?
This is a recipe for something that I made a lot when I was pregnant with our first, and for the first few months after she was born. As most new moms, I had little time to think about what I was going to eat, and breakfast was usually the meal that took the lowest place on the totem pole. I would make double recipes of these, cut them into bars, and freeze them for a quick breakfast-on-the-go. The recipe I used previously was similar, but had grains and such things that I have now eliminated from my diet. So, anticipating the same time-crunch predicament for myself in a few months’ time, I set out to modify this recipe to be primal-friendly. And I am pleased to say, that after my first attempt, this recipe is a smash hit! My husband said that he greatly prefers this recipe to the one that I used to make, as this one is much more moist. That’s all the approval I need!
Almond Butter Breakfast/Energy Bars
Yields 16 bars (2″x2″)
1/2 cup Coconut Sugar
1/4 cup Almond butter
1/4 cup Coconut milk
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbsp melted coconut oil, or melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup almond flour
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup raisins / dried cranberries
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (70%+)
1/4 c. sliced almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
2 Tbsp ground flax
Preheat Oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, stir together the coconut sugar, almond butter, coconut milk, honey, oil/butter, egg, and vanilla. In a small bowl, stir together the almond flour, baking soda and salt.
Add the almond flour mixture to the liquid bowl along with the remaining ingredients. Stir until well mixed.Spread the batter into a greased 8″x8″ pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 F, then reduce temperature to 325 F for another 10 to 15 minutes. Allow bars to cool completely in the pan before cutting into bars. I had the best results waiting until the next day to cut them apart, as they will fall apart if they are even the slightest bit warm (because they have so much yummy stuff in them!).
Enjoy!
Mmm, looks delish! Did you use canned coconut milk or the thin stuff?
Hi there!
I used canned coconut milk. Let me know if you try these out!
what’s the calorie count on each bar?
Hi SWW,
To be honest, eating primal/paleo i rarely consider calories. If you are concerned and would like to calculate it, i’d recommend fitday.com.
thanks for stopping by!
Do you think I could leave out the coconut sugar? Or can you advise a substitute? What about coconut flour?
Hi Kim,
Do you want to cut down on the sweetness of the recipe, or are you just not able to find coconut sugar? You could substitute any natural sweetener (maple syrup, or up the honey etc..) if you want to keep it slightly sweet. If you are looking to cut back on the sugar content, I would just try it without the coconut sugar. I wouldn’t use coconut flour here – coconut flour isn’t really needed to keep the bars together (the almond flour does that), and absorbs a ton of liquid, so it would drastically change the texture. Let me know how it goes, and thanks for the question!
I am making these for breakfast tomorrow…thank you for sharing!!
Looooved these! I cut out the coconut sugar and chocolate chips…subbed walnuts. Fabulous!
So glad you liked them! Sounds like a great variation!
Bless you for this awesome recipe. I have them for dessert! I’ve used a variety of nuts and just baked a batch with some macadamian nuts.
Great! Thanks for the feedback!
These are delicious! I swapped out the coconut oil for homemade applesauce and left out the cranberries as I was looking for the most protein with least calories. By the way, I live in Colorado so baking is always a challenge, but, these came out just fine.
Nice! Glad to hear they stand up to extreme altitude!