Coffee Date Bars

Naturally sweet with a slight crunch and hint of coffee, these date bars make great pre-run fuel, snacks, or dessert – and cost 41 cents each to make.

I freaking love these things.

I’ve made more versions of these sweet treats than perhaps any other. It started when I was marathon training last year and I wanted something quick, easy, and packed with good carbs to fuel my morning workouts. Who has time to cook oatmeal when you have to meet your running club at 6:30 am?

After buying a few brand name date bars at a few bucks each, I realized I could save a lot of money by making my own.

These delicious and nutritious coffee date bars cost about 40 cents each to make.

You can add so many things to date bars. I’ve tried peanut butter, almonds, and a variety of dried fruit. But for this recipe – my first for this blog, hello! – I thought I’d keep it simple and stick to the basics. “The Classic,” if you will.

INGREDIENTS

Exact amounts are in the recipe at the end of this post.

There are just six ingredients in this recipe.

• dates
• rolled oats
• raisins
• coffee beans
• chia seeds
• sea salt

These coffee date bars are soft, chewy, and sweet, with just the right amount of crunch.

INSTRUCTIONS

Additional instructions are in the recipe at the end of this post.

I prefer to roast the oats first – it gives the date bars a nice, toasted flavor. You can do this in the oven but, to be honest? I am usually WAY too lazy (and, in the summer, too hot) to turn on my oven. So I “toast” them in a dry frying pan.

If you do this, keep the heat on low and push them around with a spatula or wooden spoon every couple of minutes until they are a golden brown. When you can smell them, they’re done.

As the oats are cooling, pour the dates, raisins, coffee beans, chia seeds, and salt into a food processor. Process until loosely chopped.

Once they’re cooled, add some of the oats into the processor and continue to process the ingredients. Do this a few more times. You could add the oats all at once, but it’s nice to have oats of varying “chopped-ness” in the date bars.

Once the dough forms a ball, plop it into an 8″ x 8″ pan lined with parchment paper.

I like to smush it down with my fingers and then a flat-bottomed cup. I recommend using a piece of parchment paper to avoid a sticky mess. (A delicious sticky mess.)

Cover it and stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes to set.

Once cooled, take the ends of the parchment paper and put the whole thing onto a cutting board. I like to cut mine into 16 squares, but cut it however you like. Heck, cut it into four squares if you want. Have one for dinner. It’s your life.

TIPS

• Use pitted dates. That’s without pits. If you buy dates with pits, be sure to remove them first, and then slice each one open to make sure they’re not bad.
• Soak the dates if dry. Dates typically don’t require soaking, but if they’re dry just soak them in water for about 15 minutes and pat dry. I did this with the batch I shot for this recipe and the bars came out extra soft!
• Cut before storing. These should store in the fridge for up to a week, and possibly longer – but I’ve never had them last longer than that so I can’t say for sure!
• Store in between layers of parchment paper. If the bars are stacked directly on top of each other in the fridge, they will be kind of messy to pull apart. Use parchment paper between layers of bars.

SUBSTITUTIONS

• Raisins. You could make these with just dates as the fruit, but I wanted another sweetness source so I added raisins. I’ve added dried cherries before, but raisins are cheaper. (I’ll use dried cherries in future recipes but wanted to keep things simple and cheap for my first post.)
• Dates. You could even try another dried fruit entirely instead of dates, but I have not experimented with any. Off the top of my head, I wonder if dried apricots would work.

COST

This recipe cost $6.53 to make, so each bar (1/16th of the pan) is just 41 cents.

Each bar weighs about 1.5 oz., or about the same size as a brand name date bar.

Obviously, the cost of food differs for everyone depending on where they live, what stores are around, what products they carry, etc. I want to do my best on this blog to be as accurate as possible, but please know that cost won’t be the same for everyone.

For the record, I try to buy the least expensive ingredients possible. I also live in New York City, so this is all relative.

Here’s the breakdown of what my recipe cost. This is just for the amount of ingredients in the recipe:

• dates: $4.23 (Desert Valley Pitted Dates)
• raisins: $0.67 (Trader Joe’s)
• rolled oats: $0.56 (Trader Joe’s)
• coffee beans: $0.55 (Westside Market)
• chia seeds: $0.52 (Whole Foods 365)
• sea salt: $0.01 (Himalayan Chef)

I hope you enjoy this recipe! If you make these coffee date bars, please let me know how it goes in the comments!