No Bake Peanut Butter, Goji & Cacao Protein Bars

What makes for a great protein bar? Aside from fulfilling the obvious task of providing plenty of protein, for me it ultimately comes down to packing in lots of flavour and making a sturdy enough mixture that it doesn't crumble before you’ve even had a chance to eat it. There are thousands and thousands of protein bar recipes out there, so to create a worthy addition to the oh so crowded world of protein bar recipes, I thought I’d add an extra nutritional punch (thank you goji berries), make it really really easy to throw together, pack in oodles of flavour (thanks again goji berries, plus the cinnamon and cacao nibs), and hey, why not take out the baking stage altogether? Sounds great!

I’m amazed at how the flavours of the goji berries and cacao nibs work so well together…one word pretty much sums it up – bittersweet!. There’s a satisfying boozy kind of edge running through the flavour profile, complemented by the sweet sweet cinnamon and backed up by the earthy taste of peanut butter. The coconut flour adds another subtle layer of flavour, but happily gives way to our aforementioned taste bud ticklers. Delightful!

So how do we ensure our no bake protein bars stay solid and don’t crumble? Well many no bake recipes require you to store them in the freezer to keep them soild, but I say that’s cheating. None of that here, though I do suggest using the fridge to help keep them nice and firm. The magic ingredient however is the flax seeds; they’re the glue that binds it all together. The coconut flour is also important as it saps up the oils from the peanut butter, helping firm up the mixture into bar worthy material. Coconut flour + flax seeds + peanut butter = no bake protein bar magic. The rest is for flavour and texture.

Right, on with the recipe!

Notes

1. Any nut butter should do the trick, I just love my PB.
2. This is a very versatile recipe, so feel free to add your own ingredients to the mix, e.g. oats, nuts, other dried fruit etc. etc.

Directions

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl: coconut flour, whey protein, ground flaxseeds, cacao nibs and cinnamon
2. Give the goji berries a whizz in a blender, but no for so long that is moulds together. We’re aiming for a grainy consistency, so no more than 10 seconds should do it…using the pulse function might come in useful here if your blender has it.
3. Add the peanut butter, honey and whizzed goji berries to the dry mixture and give it a thorough stir with a fork, then once it’s started coming together you want to get your hand dirty, using your fingers to massage the mixture until it’s all thoroughly mixed. You should end up with a ball of bar mixture.
4. Grease a 10” x 10” cake tin, with either butter, coconut oil or your fat of choice. Then add some greaseproof paper to the bottom. Really it’s only the sides of the tin that need greasing, to help us ease it out when it’s ready for slicing.
5. Add the ball of bar mix to the tin, then flatten it out as much as you can so it evenly fills the cake tin.
6. Put this in the fridge and let it sit for a couple of hours. Or even better, leave it overnight…the longer you give it, the more time you give the coconut flour to absorb all those peanut oils, and importantly the flax seeds benefit from a bit of extra time to glue it all together too.
7. Now remove it from the fridge, then run a thin sharp knife round the edges of the mixture to loosen it up.
8. Now turn it upside down, giving it a gentle bash if necessary it until the mixture comes loose.
9. Slice it as evenly as you can into 8 pieces. Lo and behold we have 8 lovely no bake protein bars!

Assuming you haven’t devoured them already, you’ll want to store them in the fridge ideally. Though they hold their own surprising well at room temperature they will keep for longer in the fridge, up to a week in fact.

I hope you’ll give these a go, they really are a treat! If you have any questions please feel free to ask away in the comments below and I’ll do my best to help.