Restaurant Replica | Breakfast Bars

Dish | Breakfast bars
Restaurant | Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

If I could, I would have a delicious pastry with coffee every morning. Once a week I usually hit up Whole Foods or Coffee Bean for a latte and a sweet treat. On other days of the week I either have a bowl of cereal, or a smoothie when I have time. Coffee Bean had a "wholesome" breakfast bar which was pretty tasty, I'm sure it was healthier than a blueberry scone or piece of pound cake. It had some oats, cranberries and granola in it, it was moist and not hard like a granola bar. So, I decided to look up some recipes online for some "healthy" breakfast bars. I came across two recipes which I decided to experiment on to make them a bit more substantial for my morning meal.

Smitten Kitchen - Raspberry Breakfast Bars
Pioneer Woman - Apricot Breakfast Bars

They both have the same basis for the bar mixture, I'm going to try and add whole wheat flour, almond meal, bran and chia seeds*.

*Chia seeds are known to be rich with omega-fatty acids. Bran is also rich in dietary fatty acids as well as having significant amounts of starch, proteins, and fatty acids.

After the breakfast bars cooled, I cut them into 8 servings. They were a bit crumbly and taste like a cross between a oatmeal cookie and a crumb topping. The recipe calls for almost two sticks of butter, i'm eating my first serving with a fork because they are moist- they are actually really good, tastes as though the butter turned into brown butter as they cooked. I think these would be good with a cup of tea or coffee, with some fruit and even maybe crumbled on top of some yogurt. 

Here is the recipe with my alterations:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour 
• 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1/2  cup bran 
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-3/4 stick salted butter, cut into pieces
• Dried cranberries and blueberries
• 1 tablespoon of chia seeds 

Directions

1. Mix together all ingredients except dried fruit and chia seeds.
2. Press one half of the mixture into a buttered  pan.
3. Mix the dried fruit into the second half of the mixture and place into pan.
4. Sprinkle chia seeds over the top.
5. Bake at 350F degrees for 30-40 minutes or until light brown. Let cool completely, then cut into squares.