Easy Date Almond Butter Bars
These refined sugar free, gluten free, Easy Date Almond Butter Bars are delicious slathered with almond butter and topped with sliced bananas for breakfast, afternoon tea or even dessert!
I have found that dates can make a manic Monday night enjoyable and a terrible Tuesday morning exciting.
I think dates are delightful at tea time or lunch.
Dates are decadently sweet.
And, these days, I look for any excuse to enjoy them with almond butter.
By the way, y’all, I am talking about the fruit and not dates of a romantic nature.
Now, I’ve loved dates since my teen years when we lived in Abu Dhabi, where date palm trees lined the streets.
But, my love for dates and almond butter started in my early blogging years after I saw the combination on other food bloggers’ posts.
Recently, I’ve been looking for any excuse to enjoy my favorite snack.
- If I plan on running three miles, then dates and almond butter are my pre-workout snack.
- If I’m going to be staying up late, then dates and almond butter are my fuel with some coffee.
- If I have the breakfast blues, then dates and almond butter go into my bowl of oats.
And, speaking of my bowl of oats, that bowl of oats is what inspired these Easy Date Almond Butter Bars.
How to make these Date Almond Butter Bars?
These Date Almond Butter Bars are so easy to make. AND, they are gluten free as well as refined sugar free!
You probably have the 5 ingredients such as: oats + dates + coconut oil + eggs + Almond Butter that go into these bars, hanging out in your kitchen.
If you happen to have spices like cardamom and cinnamon as well as almond and vanilla extracts, they can be added into these bars.
However, if you don’t, no worries, they can be left out. I’m pretty sure you will find these bars delicious – and so easy to make.
By the way, After you gather up your ingredients, all you have to do is fire up your oven and leave the heavy lifting blending to your food processor or blender!
These Easy Date Almond Butter Bars are delicious for breakfast with some bananas or even for dessert!
If you made these Easy Date Almond Bars, please let me know what you thought of them by tagging savoryspin on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter.
If you are looking for more easy tasty breakfast and snack ideas for you to whip up during these times for your family, check out these:
Ingredients
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 12 medjool dates
- 1/2 cup coconut oil melted (I heated it up in a microwave safe dish in the microwave for 10 seconds)
- 3/4 cup MaraNatha Creamy No Stir Almond Butter
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsps pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, soak the dates in a bowl of warm water for 10-15 minutes.
- While dates are soaking, grease the bottom of a 9×9 baking tray (I used coconut oil) and then line the 9×9 baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
- Drain the dates well and discard the water the dates were soaking in. Make sure the dates are dry.
- Add the oats, soaked dates, melted coconut oil, MaraNatha Creamy No Stir Almond Butter, eggs, salt, vanilla and almond extracts, cinnamon and cardamom to a food processor or high speed blender and process/blend till ingredients are all blended and mixture is smooth. You might have to stop and scrape down the sides during this process.
- Spoon the blended date and almond butter bar mixture into the lined 9×9 baking tray and place in the preheated oven. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, grab the parchment carefully and pull the bar out of the baking tray and place on a cookie sheet to cool completely before slicing. These Easy Date Almond Bars can be enjoyed for breakfast with some MaraNatha Creamy No Stir Almond Butter and sliced bananas.
Can I have a couple of slices? They look so good with almond butter! New profile photo looks GREAT!
These look amazing Shashi. I make my own Almond Oat Bars with almond butter, I’m wondering if I could add medjool dates and a little cinnamon to that recipe. Hmmmm inspiration! Thanks for that! Hope you are doing well! 🙂
Wow, these bars sounds super cool Shashi. I really feel like having some of them now. Pinning for sure!
Oh this looks yummy Shashi. I love any kind of nut bars.. I’ve been hooked onto Perfect Bar, but i love making my own. Yum!
Can these be made without eggs? Is there a substitute?
Hi Arianne, you can use a flax egg (one tablespoon ground flaxseed meal with three tablespoons of water and let sit for 15 minutes before adding in) or 1/4 cup applesauce – the texture is slightly different but it will work. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting.
These look delicious! Can’t wait to make them!
Why do you oil the pan and then add parchment paper? Are they both necessary?
Hi Julie, I’ve used the double oiling and parchment method for awhile now especially when working with bars and tray bakes that do not have a lot of butter/oil in them, I think I first saw it in a recipe on Better Homes and Gardens a long time ago. Also, oiling the parchment keeps it from curling up while in the pan. Basically, it’s double insurance that these bars don’t burn. Thanks for stopping by – if you make these, I sure hope you enjoy them as much as we did.
Is there a substitute for the oats? I’m paleo
Hey Debbie, I haven’t tried making these with a sub for the oats – maybe you could use Paleo flour (Bob’ Red Mill makes one). Thanks so much for stopping by.
Do you discard the soaking water?
Hi Brittany, Yes, you do discard the water used to soak the dates in. Thanks for stopping by. Hoping you get to try these bars out and enjoy them as much as I did.
hi,
could you please tell me how you came up with the nutrition information? the carlories are much more than you have listed. Thank you and i hope to receive an answer this time.
Hi Belinda,
So sorry for the delay in replying – I used https://www.verywellfit.com/ to calculate the nutritional data – hope this helps. Thanks for stopping by and the reminder email 🙂
I was so excited to try these. They smell great as they are baking. However, at the end of 35 minutes, there was a large amount of “oil” on top. Did I not combine the ingredients well enough? The dough looked thoroughly combined.
Dave, I am so sorry to hear about the large amount of “oil” on top. I have a few questions – did you drain the dates well before adding them into the blender? Also, did you use Maranatha Almond Butter? The reason I ask is if there’s water in the dates, that could maybe lead to a more liquid type mixture. Also, different nut butters seem to have a different amount of “oil” in them … I didn’t overmix the dough – in fact, as soon as the oats and dates were blended, I turned my blender off. Also – when you removed the tray from the oven, did you take the bake out of the tray and let it cool on a cookie sheet? If you answered yes to all this, I am so sorry I don’t have a solution. I tried this recipe out twice – once each with both types of MaraNatha Almond Butter and didn’t have the extra oil – if you figure it out, I would love to know. Thanks so much for making these – once again, I am so sorry.
Hello, good recipe, worked well for me with less dates and more figs in replacement. Also used ready made healthy oat and falxseed costco cereal instead of rolled oats. tastes excellent without seeming very sweet or sugary.
Question: Do these have to be kept in the fridge? Or can they be stored outside the fridge? If so how long would they be useable before they get spoilt / bad?
Thanks
B. Rao
So sorry for the late reply – these are best stored in the fridge – maybe for 3-4 days, they haven’t lasted longer than that at our home. Thanks for stopping by.
Looks like they last well for over a week, no problem – but like you said, it is better kept in the fridge.
Aside: Using Apple Sauce instead of eggs works just fine too, even if a bit more crumbly. But I am sure this is old news for you and most your readers.
Oh this looks yummy Shashi. I love any kind of nut bars.. I’ve been hooked onto Perfect Bar, but i love making my own. Yum!
I was so excited to try these. They smell great as they are baking. However, at the end of 35 minutes, there was a large amount of “oil” on top. Did I not combine the ingredients well enough? The dough looked thoroughly combined.
The mixture was so thick it broke my ninja… But I’m still excited to try them! I made this recipe before and they weren’t as thick so maybe I did something wrong this time but anyway last time they tasted fantastic.
I love everything in these bars: oats, daytes, alomond butter … I’ll bet they’re fantastic!
I make these often and adore them