Oatmeal Chocolate Squares

I’m getting lazy in my third trimester – baking seems like such an effort. I’m far more likely to reach for a bag of Tumbles than I am to break out the cacao and rustle up a healthy snack, but every now and then I rouse myself from my human-growing stupor and manage to bang something out.

Can I just say though, that growing a nearly full sized baby is not much fun. So if I’m eating handfuls of Tumbles instead of date balls, don’t judge me. The baby wants them – I’m just the human incubator with no say.

These bad boys turned out pretty well, considering I accidentally overcooked them and then left them in the fridge 5 days too long. Don’t worry, I’ve highlighted what not to do in the recipe…

Oatmeal Chocolate Squares

• 3 tbsp raw honey
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup oat flour (I blended rolled oats to a fine flour)
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• Pinch sea salt
• ¼ cup plus 2 tbsp almond milk

Chocolate topping:

• 2 tbsp cacao
• 2 tbsp raw honey
• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• Splash of warm water

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Cream together honey, peanut butter and vanilla with an electric beater.
3. In a separate bowl, combine oat flour, rolled oats, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Turn on the mixer and slowly add almond milk, beating on low speed. Beat just enough to combine properly, about 15 seconds. The dough should pull together in moist mounds as it’s dragged around the bowl.
5. Press dough into square pan and flatten with your fingertips.
6. Combine chocolate topping ingredients and pour over oat mixture.
7. Bake for 10 – 15 mins or until the edges are golden and crackled and a cake skewer comes out mostly clean with a bit of soft crumb on the end.
8. Store in the fridge for up to a week – they go nice and fudgy. Anything over a week and they dry out.