These days, our breakfast is light and simple. And since we’re still sticking to our 15:9 intermittent fasting routine, the first bite of the day is at 8:30am.
It’s usually either a grilled cheese sandwich, some multigrain tuber crackers or homemade oat bars. Followed up with a nice cup of V60 pour over coffee, using freshly-ground beans from Africa or Central America.
Of course, there are cheat days when we indulge in roti prata, fried beehoon or youtiao from our downstairs market, but they’re relatively few and far between.
We used to buy ready-made breakfast bars from the supermarket, but our preferred brand changed their recipe and it no longer suited our tastes. Instead of trying out other commercially-available alternatives, The Wife decided to make her own.
After some trial-and-error, here’s her go-to recipe. It makes around 8 small bars, enough for our breakfast for four days.
Ingredients
– Peanut butter (110g) no sugar added
– Maple syrup (50g)
– Water (100ml)
– Vanilla extract (1 tsp)
– Rolled oats (130g)
– Cashew / pistachio / pecan / walnut / dried cranberries / raisins (120g)
– Dark chocolate (50g)
Instructions
– Preheat oven to 160°C
– Line 8-inch baking pan with baking paper
– Combine wet ingredients in large bowl, mix well
– Add in rolled oats, mix well
– Add in nuts & dried fruits, mix well
– Pour in mixture and press down firmly until one smooth layer
– Scatter dark chocolate chips on top (if preferred)
– Bake 15-20 mins (or until golden brown)
– Spread melted chocolate evenly
– Let cool for 20 mins
– Cut and store in fridge, up to 1 week
We prefer our bars to be soft and chewy, but if you like them slightly harder and crunchier, simply reduce the liquid content. Other things that you can customise include:
Options
– Water can be replaced with almond milk or other nut milk
– Add your favourite nuts and dried fruits
– Sweetness mainly from maple syrup, dried fruits and dark chocolate
For any particular batch, The Wife uses whatever nuts and dried fruits she happens to have handy. My favourite version is the cashew-pistachio-pecan combo, together with some dried cranberries.
The most recent batch also included big chunks of dried strawberries from a Chinese New Year market, which added a wonderfully chewy texture and sweet tartness.
Baking these oat bars takes some effort, so they don’t make an appearance that frequently. But when they do, it’s always a treat and almost feels like we’re having dessert for breakfast. If you like to bake, you might want to give this recipe a try.
