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A super simple recipe that delivers: oat bars packed with the delicious combination of hazelnuts and chocolate. Hazelnut butter emphasizes the nutty taste . These are the perfect pantry-ingredient dessert, snack or even breakfast!

Guys, are your currently-at-home children constantly clamoring for snacks too? Although she is a forever fan of anything with buttercream on it, I don’t think mine has ever been this interested in my baking. I have to either bat her off, suggest she wait until mealtime, suggest an activity to distract her, or well, cave.

A few days ago, I pulled out a few pantry ingredients to make these yummy bars for her (all of us). They these skip the usual granola sweeteners and binders, and instead use sweetened condensed milk and homemade hazelnut butter. While that last one may sound fancy, it’s simply toasted nuts ground into a (delicious) paste.

The first time I made these I realized, my three year old could help make them! And by help I mean, she could do most of it herself. Once I prepared her mise en place, she poured and mixed everything together, then pressed it all into a pan and added her favorite ingredients on top. This made it doubly worth it because it was a fun activity for her to do, and god knows we need more of those these days lol.

Anyway, I may have rambled on about these being for her, but, truth? My husband and I gobbled them down too. It helps that they carry loads of flavor, nutrition in the form of oats (so they are quite filling!) and flavor from the chocolate and nuts. Win, win, win!

 

 

Hazelnut Butter Granola Bars

Notes

• Hazelnut butter can be made ahead of time – weeks even! To flavor it a bit add some salt and vanilla. It makes a great toast spread. Store it in the fridge in an airtight container.
• A lot of these ingredients are interchangeable; hazelnuts for your own favorite nut (I think a pistachios would be great here! And you can make a pistachio butter too, just reduce the toasting time as the nuts are smaller); chocolate chips for any other chocolate kind, or even chocolate candies would be welcome.
• I used this biscotti pan – the shape is perfect for slicing into bars! Since it is uncommon though, I give directions for a regular 8×8 square inch pan. The bars will be thick. I find that setting them in the fridge for an hour makes them easier to slice and while I first made them into bars, I later found smaller cubes to be the perfect snack size.

Ingredients

• 4 cups quick cooking oats (or 4 cups rolled oats, ground in a food processor)
• 16 oz whole hazelnuts
• 1 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• Pinch salt
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• Optional:additional hazelnuts, chocolate chips and sprinkles for topping

Method

1. Make hazelnut butter: in an oven preheated to 350, toast 16 oz hazelnuts on a baking sheet. If nuts are raw, toast for 12 minutes; if they are roasted, toast for 5-7, until fragrant.

2. Set aside 1 cup of nuts. Add the rest to a food processor and process until finely ground. Continue processing until a smooth paste forms. You’ll use ½ cup of the paste for the granola bars. Reserve the rest for another use.

3. In a large bowl mix together the oats, ½ cup of hazelnut butter, sweetened condensed milk, reserved 1 cup hazelnuts and chocolate chips.

4. Line an 8×8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper. Press the mixture into the pan and add sprinkles, more nuts and chips on top if desired.

5. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool completely and then use a chopping knife to cut into bars.

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