Eric says I make my best recipes when I’m pmsing.
Wait, is that a back-handed compliment?
Errr…
And how did he know I was pmsing?
“Well,…remember the other night when you started to cry watching that wedding dress show…?”
“When the Dad cries, everyone cries.”
“…and the other day, I caught you with chocolate all over your face talking about some chocolate river…”
“….and how is that different from any other day?”
“Good point. Or yesterday, when you were yelling on the phone with the phone company…”
“She was a phone robot, that doesn’t count! Robots have no feelings, pulse,…or comprehension of the English language, evidently.”
“Or this morning when…”
Ooooooook, no need to live in the past. I’m sure we all get the point. ;)
After some careful thought, his statement did make sense.
PMS –> increase in calorie expenditure (yay, eat more) –> increase in hunger –> empty stomach feeling 24/7 –> chocolate river dreams –> cooking/baking success.
Now, let’s look for concrete proof of his claims over the past week:
- Chocolate Cake Batter Smoothie
- Stuffed Phyllo Rolls
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Glazed Doughnuts
- Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Spiced Doughnuts
- 5 Ingredient Cheeze Sauce
Guilty as charged.
If that is hard evidence, these Chocolate Chunk Toffee Bars are the final nail in my coffin. Eric declared the recipe ‘in the vault’ and mumbled something about chocolate while his eyes glazed over. Typical. The stash quickly disappeared in the span of 3 days. Not surprisingly, more by him than me!
I guess he’s suffering from Male Menstrual Syndrome. I better keep my distance…there’s nothing worse than MAN-MS, right ladies?
And don’t worry, I pointed and laughed at the chocolate smudges on the side of his mouth.
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Chocolate Chunk Toffee Bars
Yield
9 large bars
Prep time
Rest time
45 minutes
Cook time
Total time
Everything I love in a granola bar- a crisp, toffee-like exterior with a chunky and chewy middle. Be sure to allow the bars to cool completely before slicing. If you adapt the recipe, please leave a comment with the changes you made and how it turned out! I’m curious if other flours and nut butters might work.
Ingredients
- 1.5 cup oats
- 1/4 cup whole grain spelt flour
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup walnuts, chopped
- 1/2 cup brown rice syrup
- 2 tbsp Earth Balance (or other non-dairy spread)
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup all natural peanut butter (my PB is very ‘drippy’- if yours is dry add another tbsp Earth Balance)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chocolate chunks or chips
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line an 8-inch pan with 2 pieces of parchment paper (one going each way), so the bars do not stick to pan.
- In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients (oats, flour, chia seeds, cinnamon, salt, walnuts).
- In a microwavable bowl, stir together the brown rice syrup, Earth Balance, brown sugar, and peanut butter. Microwave on high for 45 seconds. Alternatively you can heat this on the stovetop.
- Pour wet mixture onto dry and stir well. The mixture will be very tough to stir (it’s a thick dough!) so don’t be alarmed. Allow the dough to cool a bit before mixing in the chocolate (otherwise, if you add in the chocolate too soon, it will melt, and it’s best chunky).
- Scoop into prepared pan and with a wet spoon spread out the mixture. The dough will be very thick and sticky. I dipped a pastry roller into water and rolled it out. Try to get it as even as possible!
- Bake for 30-32 minutes at 350°F. Allow to cool in the pan, on a cooling rack, for at least 15 minutes. Remove carefully from pan and allow to cool on the rack for another 20-30 minutes. If you cut the bars before completely cooling, they will crack, so it’s a good idea to wait as they will firm up.
These granola bars took me a few tries, but I finally got the outcome I was looking for- a crispy, toffee-like exterior with a chewy, chocolaty middle. They have a slight toffee flavour and are like a less sweet, more natural candy bar!
The bars will firm up a bit once cooled which is exactly how I prefer to eat them. Their flavour and chewy texture gets better with age. :)
Ok, I just Googled ‘male PMS’ for fun and there’s an actual term for it called Irritable Male Syndrome (IMS).
I can’t wait to tell Eric I found his diagnosis!
no PMSing but received a layoff notice today…looking for something yummy to make…just for me!
Hi Cindy,
This comment warrants a response. I hope you made these bars and your otherwise lousy day found some sweetness!
Sorry to hear about your news Cindy. I hope the bars bring some joy your way. All the best,
Angela
The bars turned out great (mood greatly improved). Thanks for the good vibes.
Ok…made these this morning and was slapping away small and big hands from the batch! I substituted white rice flour and cashew butter and made half the batch with white chocolate chips for the little ones. I also used coconut oil to grease the pan and the bars popped right out-sans parchment paper. Put these in my toaster oven at 350 for 25 minutes. Perfect, thank you!
nice! :) Thanks for letting me know
Made these last night and they are delicious! I used whole wheat flour, skipped the chia seeds (I didn’t have any) and used Sunspire peanut butter chips instead of chocolate. Soooo good Angela!
Nice! :)
These look so good and I will probably make them tonight! I discovered your blog via interest a couple wks ago and you have revolutionized the way I eat already! I had all the right elements there but partially lacked the motivation. Your recipes have made it easier for me to go dairy free as well! Thank you so so so much! My husband thanks you as well for the delicious healthy recipes:)
Thank you for your kind words Katie!
Really good recipe!!! I’ve added some puffed rice in it too, it was nice! :)
I made these yesterday and the only sub I made was using buckwheat flour instead of spelt flour to make them GF. I didn’t have a 8″ pan so I used 2 loaf pans. I decreased the cooking time to 28 minutes but should have decreased it more since they were a bit over cooked. Still very tasty though :) They crumbled a bit when I cut them so I put all the crumbs in a bowl and added a little almond milk. It tasted like a dessert granola, yum! I definitely plan to make these again, great recipe. Oh, and I also made your rustic banana oat cake yesterday for my sisters birthday. I’ll be serving it tonight provided hurricane Irene doesn’t cancel our dinner get together. Can’t wait to try it!!
These were extremely tasty!!! The only thing for me was that I had trouble lifting them out of the pan and then getting them off of the parchment paper without cracking (though I let them first cool in the pan and then cool on the paper)…maybe I should have let them cool even longer. Regardless of the funny shapes they ended up being cut into, they were delish!!!!
Great recipe! I played with it a little bit and used whole wheat flour, almond butter, coconut butter and pumpkin spice to replace some of the ingredients. I used raw acai flavored chocolate instead which was nice but looking back on it I should have just bought dark choc. morsels bc its kind of a waste to put raw chocolate in the toaster lol. I also don’t have a proper over, just a mini toaster oven so I just baked them at 250 for like 10-15 mins and that was enough for them to be warm and hold together. Great though, loved the flavor and the nuttyness of it all:)
Keep posting, I look forward to these everyday!
Elisa (from Hong Kong)
What could you substitute for spelt flour? whole wheat pasty flour?
I can’t believe how easy these are to make!!! you are amazing by helping all us ‘women’ beat this evil PMS!!! haha
Hi Angela,
I made your bars the other day and they turned out great. I did change up the recipe a bit because it was what I had on hand. I replace the chia seeds with hemp seeds, the brown rice syrup with honey and the chocolate chips with raw cacao nibs. I also doubled up the batch to give some to a girl friend. I’m loving your recipes and your blog. Keep up the good work! Mini doughnuts are coming out of the oven now!!
I made these using regular old Jif PB and instead of spelt flour I used wheat. I also halved the chocolate chips but used mini ones so that way they were still all throughout the bars. They still turned out great and chewy. I’m thinking of taking the bars and making them into granola crumble for oat and yogurt topping!
Oh and I used molasses in place of the brown rice!
I made these today and I used honey in place of brown rice syrup, butter in place of Earth Balance, and chopped almonds in place of walnuts. Fantastic!!! These bars are addicting!!
Angela – I made these exactly as you wrote the recipe (minus the walnuts) and I’m afraid they didn’t turn out. I baked them for 30 minutes, but the edges burned and then as the bars cooled, they turned out hard as rocks. But – the bar I ate when it was still warm and soft out of the oven was delicious! Maybe I need to try again and bake them for a shorter time.
Sorry to hear that Becky! Hmm I wonder if it was b/c of the walnuts? It calls for 1 cup so that is a large portion of the recipe to leave out. I hope you have better luck next time!!
toffee is the one of the best things ever. you should sell this as one of your glo-bars!
YUM! I just finished eating one of these (waiting for them to cool was the longest 40 minutes;) ). They were delicious. I just wanted to share a substitution that I made, in the event anyone else wants to make the same. I simply used maple syrup for the brown rice syrup, and chopped up some almonds to replace the walnuts, as I didn’t have those on hand. Fantastic- thanks again! :)
So glad they worked Tara!
I’m so glad you said that because I have nowhere near me that sells brown rice syrup and wondered if the recipe would still work if I used maple syrup instead. Can’t wait for the weekend, definitely going to bake up a batch!
Oh, great! I’m glad I could help :) I’ve made them 3 times since then- they work great both as granola bar squares, and crumbled into a bowl with almond milk on top :) Yum!
I’ve made these twice in the last 3 days and I’m ashamed to admit, I live alone. I have lofty plans to cut them up and freeze them and have them on hand to use as afternoon pick-me-ups after my return to school next week. But they are sooooo good, I instead eat a lot in a single sitting. Fingers crossed this batch lasts longer than 2 days.
our 12 year-old loved these, but i agree with someone above–only baked 30 minutes and they dried too hard. i’ll try 25 minutes next time. my substitutions: ww pastry for spelt, flax for chia and sucanat for brown sugar (i always use a whole sugar), and no microwave (keep the food whole so the body can recognize it). very yummy! thanks, katy
I just made these with Agave instead of the brown rice syrup, and they taste really good! However, I think the baking time is a little long, at least for my oven, as the edges and bottom got burned after 30min!
Made these again today and they’re still AMAZING! Thanks so much for sharing these delicious recipes I’ve been addicted to for the past two years!