CrossFit East Bay Rest Day 090526:
CrossKitchen DIY: Protein Bars

The protein bar.  Second only to the shake in the bodybuilder's arsenal, there's quite a lucrative industry out there of bars promising to pump you up with their proprietary blend of whey, amino acids, and crunchy bits in a chocolate coating.  I have eaten my fair share of them.  Some of them are darn tasty.  Most of them are full of horrible crap.  All of them contain sugar, or a sugar substitute, and typically a slate of unpronounceable ingredients.  And at $2 apiece, they can really add up.

(If you have to buy a protein bar, I recommend the Clif Builder Bars.  Their ingredients are not as terrible as others (ie, no aspartame at least), and they're actually in perfect zone proportions.  But do not be fooled:  they are not real food, and eating them comes at a nutritional cost.)

After doing some research, I started making my own bars.  With a protein blend from Trueprotein.com, I can get a quality mixture of whey and casein protein without all the artificial sweeteners and crap that clog up store-bought mixes, and use that as the basis for my own bars. 

My first attempts were very tasty, and I still make them from time to time.  They're really good freshly-made, but tend to lose flavor and texture over time, and are annoying in that they have to stay refrigerated or else they get greasy, so they aren't great for bringing to work.

So a while back I set out to figure out a baked protein bar recipe, something a bit more transportable, and came up with the following recipe.  I don't like things super sweet, so these tend to have more of a scone-like texture and flavor, but I think they go great with coffee (even better with some peanut butter slathered on top), and are easy to make in batches that last about ten days.



Ingredients

• 2 cups unflavored protein powder
• 1/4c almond meal
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• optional: 4 packets stevia (or 1/4c honey or sugar)
• 1/4c butter
• 1/4c almond butter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 3/4c milk
• 2/3c toasted nuts (I like almonds and walnuts)
• 1/3c dried fruit (I like chopped apricots or cranberries)
  

Preheat the oven to 350, and grease a 9x9 baking dish.



Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  In a separate bowl, melt the butter and almond butter together in the microwave, then whisk in the eggs, vanilla and milk.



Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, and stir until just combined.  Add the nuts and fruit and stir.  Scrape the mixture into the 9x9 baking dish.  It should have a thick, wet texture like brownie batter.







Bake for about 13 minutes.  They will look nowhere near done at this point - just a light-brown slab.  Turn on the broiler, and broil for a couple minutes until the top is lightly browned (be careful not to go too long!).  What you're shooting for is a nice firm top, but the inside to still be somewhat moist.  Bake for too long and they get... brickish.



Remove from oven and cool a bit before cutting into bars.  Makes 12 bars.