Banana and chocolate chip oaty breakfast bars

These oaty squares are great for breakfasts on the go. Make them in advance and they can be kept in a a sealed lunchbox for up to a week or can be frozen until needed. They are so handy and with no flour, added fat or refined sugar, so they are a healthier option.

Because we blend half the oats, we do get a cakey, almost banana bread texture to these cakes instead of an oaty biscuit texture as you might imagine. They are incredibly filling so great to grab for a breakfast on the go, or to pack when hillwalking or out for the day,

You can add just about any add-ins to the base bar mix, chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, dried apricots or banana chips. I like milk chocolate and/or white chocolate chips in these as a real treat.

I am using cup measurements here as they dont need precise measurements and not having to get out the scales makes it even quicker to make these delicious chewy squares.

Ingredients
3 cups of oats
1 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla extract or essence
¹⁄3 cup of applesauce (unsweetened)
3 mashed bananas
¹⁄₂ cup of milk chocolate chips
¹⁄3 cup of maple syrup
1¹⁄₂ tsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 170℃ and grease a 9*9 baking tin with butter to prevent the batter sticking.
2. Add half the oats to a food mixer and blend until it resembles a kind of flour.
3. Now add in the rest of your oats and all the ingredients bar your chocolate chips. Give the batter a light mix in your mixer but not too fine as we want texture in our oaty squares.
4. Next fold in the chocolate chips 
5. Turn out the mixture into your pre-prepped baking tin. 
6. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, checking after 20 minutes, until the oaty cakes are golden brown. 
7. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool , and when cool cut into squares. or bars.