Peanut butter chocolate chip crumble oat bars

‘Peanut butter chocolate chip crumble oat bars’ is a bit of a mouthful to say, and these bars were definitely a bit of a mouthful to eat.

I made this as an alternative to the friendly pony’s usual flapjacks as a high calorie, sugar rush, energy boost.

The base is a cross between flapjack and shortbread, with a layer of fudgy peanut butter on top and finished with a chocolate chip crumble.

They are super rich, and you need a really sweet tooth to eat a whole one, but the pony loved them, and I enjoyed the odd nibble here and there. They’re a bit more time consuming and need more ingredients than flapjacks (not to mention the sky high calorie count) so I’m not sure I’ll make them that regularly, but they definitely make an awesome occasional treat.

Peanut butter chocolate chip crumble oat bars (adapted from 1001 cupcakes, cookies and other tempting treats):

• 225g butter
• 350g plain flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 350g light brown sugar
• 175g oats
• 70g chopped peanuts
• 1 egg
• 200g milk chocolate chunks
• 100g dark chocolate chunks
• 400g tin condensed milk
• 70g crunchy peanut butter

Rub together the flour, baking powder and butter with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs, then mix in the sugar, peanuts and oats. Transfer a quarter of the mix into a separate bowl, add in the chocolate chunks and set aside. Add the beaten egg to the remaining 3/4 of the mix then press into a 12×8″ tin. Bake at 180 for 15 minutes.

While the base is baking, mix together the condensed milk and peanut butter. When the base comes out the oven, spread the peanut butter mix over the top, then sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture on top. Return to the oven for another 20 minutes, the leave to cool before cutting into bars. This made 10 friendly pony sized bars, but would make 20 very reasonable sized squares easily.

Dinosaur Flapjacks

This week, the friendly pony (who you will notice appears a lot in my baking stories) took to the kitchen. He wanted to create something sweet and delicious that would give him an energy boost before cycling home from work and could also be frozen.

He decided on flapjacks, decided the key ingredients would be oats, peanuts and chocolates, and asked me to work out the rest.

I adapted a recipe for chocolate hazelnut flapjacks from 1001 Cupcakes, Cookies and Other Tempting Treats (a Christmas present from the pony himself).

We basically double the base amounts of oats, butter, syrup and flour, and threw in extra nuts and chocolate – because they’re the tastiest bit.

This recipe made 12 fairly large flapjacks in an oven roasting tin, so I reckon half the amount would fill a 10×10″ square and maybe make 9.

(PS, the name ‘dinosaur flapjacks’ doesn’t really have much to do with the finished bars, but it’s what the pony wanted to call them.)

Ingredients:

• 400g oats
• 200g peanuts
• 200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 100g plain flour
• 250g butter
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 180g light brown muscovado sugar

Method:

• Heat the butter, sugar and syrup in a saucepan until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool for a bit then mix in all of the dry ingredients
• Spread the mixture evenly into a greased and lined tin, then bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until it feels firm to the touch.
• Leave to cool a little before cutting into squares, then chill in the fridge until set.