Soft, chewy, dense, and satisfying, these cookie dough protein granola bars are something you can really sink your teeth into. Packed with plenty of protein and fiber, they make a perfect healthy snack. Gluten-free, refined sugar-free, vegan, and crazy delicious!
Home, sweet home!
Well… almost home sweet home. I’m currently writing this on the plane ride back from Blend, missing friends but looking forward to settling back into my comfy, cozy routine. And bed. And kitchen. And wifi zone. I mean… I love travelling, and this past weekend was tonnes of fun, but it’s always nice to get yourself back on home turf, ya know? Especially when home turf includes a pantry and fridge.
I don’t know what you guys do when you get home, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to be making a beeline straight for the kitchen as soon as I walk through the door so that I can get some fresh food in my belly. A weekend of nonstop snacking on cereals, crackers, breads, and bars will do that to ya.
But I can’t exactly speak badly of cereals and bars since they’re what get me through the majority of my trips.
Allergies make it a little difficult to eat out, and I can’t exactly travel with a trip-long supply of home cooked meals stuffed into my suitcase, so snacks are where it’s at when I’m out and about… and I was especially thankful to be able to snack on these cookie dough protein granola bars this past weekend.
I know, I know. It’s a little crazy to bring homemade bars to a retreat like Blend where the snack bars flow like water, but I don’t think I’ve ever come across a bar that wasn’t made with peanuts and/or traces of peanuts… which isn’t exactly useful for someone with a peanut allergy.
I mean… as much as I like exploring new cities, I don’t have much of an interest in seeing the ER units of the hospitals there. And because I don’t like feeling left out of all the deliciousness, I make my own tasty snacks…
These bars are a spin-off combination of my chocolate chip cookie dough bars and my popular soft and chewy protein granola bars. After all the experimenting I did with those cookie dough bars, I wanted to see if I could pack in some extra nutrition that’d be useful for travelling and/or working out, so I swapped the flour for some extra oats and added in some protein powder to make cookie dough protein granola bars.
Just like their parent recipes, these granola bars are soft, chewy, dense, doughy, and super satisfying — a bar you can really sink your teeth into. They’re also gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and vegan as long as you use a plant-based protein powder and dairy-free chocolate chips; and the granola bar recipe they’re based off is one of my favourites that I’ve made countless batches of, so I hope you love them as much as I do!
I’d love to know if you make this recipe! Leave a comment and rating down below to let me know what you think, and subscribe to our mailing list to receive new recipes in your inbox!
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Cookie Dough Protein Granola Bars
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 10 – 12 bars 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cups quick oats, ground into a flour*
- 1 cup quick oats**
- 1/2 cup vanilla protein powder***
- 1/2 cup Medjool dates, pitted (about 6 large dates)
- 1/4 cup almond butter (or any nut butter)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 – 1/3 cup dairy-free mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place dates in a small bowl and cover with enough hot water to fully submerge them. Set aside and let sit for about 10 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F and prepare an 8×8 baking dish by lining it with a sheet of aluminum foil or parchment paper, leaving a few inches of overhang on the sides to allow for easy removal. Spray foil with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine oat flour, oats, and protein powder. Set aside.
- Drain the dates and place them in the bowl of a food processor or blender. Process until they begin to turn into a smooth paste before adding almond butter, almond milk, and vanilla. Continue processing until ingredients are fully combined and mixture is smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Pour wet mix into dry mix and stir until fully incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Transfer dough to the prepared baking pan, and use a spatula or your hands to spread the mixture evenly in the pan.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes, until edges begin to turn golden brown.
- Remove from oven and let cool in pan before cutting into bars. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
Notes
* To make oat flour, simply place regular oats into a food processor or blender and process until they become a fine powder. ** Make sure to use certified gluten-free oats if you need to make these gluten-free. *** Use your favourite protein powder, but make sure that you like the taste since it’ll be quite prominent in these bars.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
Looking for more healthy granola bar recipes? Try one of these!
Soft and Chewy Protein Granola Bars
Banana Bread Granola Bars
No Bake Chocolate Sunflower Seed Butter Granola Bars
No Bake Sweet & Salty Trail Mix Granola Bars
Honey Almond Granola Bars
I made these last week and they were so good! My 11 month old twins and three year old also devoured them. And my three year old eats nothing! Annnnd I felt so good knowing they were eating such good for them food. 😉 I mean, everyone deserves a little chocolate here and there. (or everyday…)
These look heavenly! Your recipes have never led me astray so needless to say I’m looking forward to trying these 🙂
Wait a second, what did you feed me?
I completely understand what you mean about getting home. I love to travel too, but I always feel so good back in my own home. Partially because the cats are there, but also my own fridge, kitchen, beds that fit my body…. 🙂
Don’t worry — you got the crack-free bars 😛
Made these, yummy! Been my go to snack.
More than anything, I usually just miss my home! I love vacations, but I also love just being in my space. And since Matt and I cook fairly decent/healthy, I start to miss our simple meals. These bars honestly made my stomach grumble while at work – wish I could just grab one through the screen! Ps, I think the world needs to make that happen soon.
Oh these sound epic, I LOVE cookie dough things 🙂
I’m seriously trying to get better about making my own bars/snacks since buying them is ridiculously expensive(*cough* QUEST BARS *cough*). and making them taste like cookie dough? I’m in.
I happen to have a box of Quest bars hanging around if you ever wanna come pick them up 😛
OH my gosh – these are seriously my favorite flavors – cookie dough and chocolate chips 🙂 And it’s healthy – sign me up!
These look so good! My daughter has a peanut sensitivity, so I definitely appreciate all of your healthy peanut free recipes!
Cooooookie dough!! These look mighty tasty, perfect for travel. Can’t wait to read about Blend. 🙂
These sound amazing! x
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Welcome home :)! I’m so with you about needing whole, fresh food after travelling…even the plane journey alone is enough to spur on the veggie cravings! Can’t wait to read more about BLEND- it looked like so much fun! Allergies aside, I too would take my own homemade bars if they looked as delicious as these- those choc chips are outta control :)!
I can definitely relate to wanting to get back into a routine once you return from traveling. Traveling is great and I love seeing new places, but the comfort of home is always so welcoming. Also, I LOVE cookie dough, so I’ll definitely be trying these!!
YUM! These look amazing and so healthy and tasty! I love all your recipes, thanks for sharing them!
Josie
josievictoriaa / fashion, travel and lifestyle
I really enjoy plant-based protein powders, and Plant Fusion and Skoop are some of my favourites.
I haven’t used protein powder before. Is there one that you’d recommend.
I don’t think I ever saw you at Blend. Maybe at dinner the first night? Otherwise you must have been locked up in your cabin! It was cold and the WIFI was awful!
I found it a lot harder to meet people this year since everyone was kind of isolated in their cabins! But yeah… we did end up having some crazy weather, too.
You are rockin’ it with the dates, girl! These look amazing. I’m not sure I could be trusted with an entire batch!
And I’m glad you had a fun time at Blend! I hear you about wanting to eat your own food again though. My diet always takes a hit when I travel. But at least you had a few of these in your pocket! YUM.
You have to open up a store with all your goodies and then be a sponsor at Blend. Seriously.
I don’t even remember the last place I traveled to right now! GASP. I need a vacation ASAP. I always reach for raw carrots straight from the veggie tray. Since most vegetables in meals on vacation are sautéed or roasted in oil, I always just want a raw, untouched carrot. And oatmeal. It’s like my ultimate home comfort meal.
Oatmeal is one of my travel staples too… even if I usually end up having to make it using the coffee maker 😆
Wait, do you have a version that has peanuts in them? Haha, j/k! I love all things cookie dough so I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to try these!
Random blog comment… I love the “read them below or add one” and the add one link takes you to the comment form. I may be borrowing/stealing this for myself! =)
So yummy! Bars are perfect travel snacks!
Mmm. “Soft, chewy, dense” ➔ those are adjectives I LOVE for granola bars. I definitely think homemade protein bars are just as good— if not, better— than brand name ones. Maybe I shouldn’t be saying that coming back from Blend… But seriously.
I miss my bananas and smoothies when I’m not home. I’m so excited that it’s summer so I can cook/bake again!
And you know where I just traveled 🙂 Again, it was SO great seeing your gorgeous face in person!!
The feelings are most definitely mutual. Even if I -did- almost have to hop a table to give you a hug 😛
Aw man I did it again. I’m reading this while hungry. Now I just want cookies. I really need to go make a smoothie so maybe I will do that instead…but then have cookies. Can’t wait to hear more about Blend!
I can only imagine how hard it must be to travel to new areas with a peanut allergy! I mean, especially Blends since peanut butter is the crack of the healthy living blogging world haha. So, you might kick me, but I’ve only ever had one small bite of a date before (whew, glad I finally got that out there) and have never incorporated it into a recipe before. You’ve inspired me!
Pinned!
What I wanna know is how you managed to only take one small bite of a date without wanting to devour the whole thing 😯
Mmm, cookie dough… what’s not to love? 🙂 Hope you had fun this weekend!
These look so good! I love the ingredients and all the flavors! To answer your question, the last place I traveled to that was a significant distance away from my home was Portland, Oregon, but it was quite awhile ago.
lololol this is so cruel but I remember toronto and your poor pitiful lunch next to me and megs.
Lucky we are epic company 😉
It must not have been that great because I can’t even remember what I had 😛
These Look like a great snack and thanks for sharing. With work, I eat a lot of bars because they are so quick and portable. Plus working in the industry you never know if the day is going to be super busy or quiet so it’s important to be ready for anything with small snacks throughout the day. Anyways thanks for sharing!
Now that’s just not fair – had you told me you were gonna be travelling with these drool-inducers, I would have dropped everything and come to Blend! GAH! 🙂
So looking forward to a recap…
And here I was thinking you would have dropped everything to come see ME 😛
Welcome home! I love these bars and I love that you brought them to Blend. ….though like you said, you didn’t really have a choice.
I love going on vacation but miss my home routine so much! Especially my coffee and oatmeal in the morning. It’s never quite the same when away although I never travel without my homemade oatmeal packets and peanut butter. Perfect travel food for me!
Yum! I’m thinking of making some snacks to take on my trip to Orlando this week and my sister is vegan, so these would be great for her.
Unless I’m going someplace really different, I eat mostly the same foods when I’m on vacation. I’ll indulge more for dinners, but breakfast and lunch is usually pretty familiar stuff.
It’s like you know me with all these chocolate chip cookie dough recipes! It’s my favorite thing in the world! Question – do you find that cooking with vanilla protein powder gives the best flavor? Sometimes I try chocolate but not sure if that changes anything … sometimes I don’t taste it and other times I think it tastes different after baking.
I definitely like using vanilla the best. I’ll sometimes use chocolate if I’m making something chocolatey, but otherwise I find that vanilla adds sweetness and a hint of vanilla flavour without altering the actual flavour of whatever it is that I’m making.
I have been looking for a protein powder for a long time. I currently use Trader Joe’s Vanilla Soy Protein Powder.. but it doesn’t have the best flavor. What do you suggest? By the way, these look excellent! (per usual 😉 )
My favourite protein powder is from Genuine Health, but I don’t think that’s an easy one to find in the States. If you’re looking for a plant based protein powder, then I really recommend trying out Plant Fusion. It blends really nicely and comes in lots of great flavours. I’ve also heard really good things about Skoop, which is one I plan on ordering soon myself.
I love all these cookie dough recipes lately! They’ve been inspiring me to create some of my own 🙂 Love how you use dates so often as a sweetener, they can be a pain (at least for me!) but really worth it with the texture plus sweetness.
Have you tried soaking your dates prior to processing? That aways helps me with mine. And so does using a smaller food processor — that way the dates don’t have as much room to escape 😛
Ahhhh these sound amazing! I am needing some protein bars this week, so I will give them a go! Yum! Now you finally have a recipe on Monday, will you join us for the meatless monday linkup please lovely? We would love to have you!
All of your cookie dough recipes put me in a constant craving for some good old-fashioned dough every time!