Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars made with oats, dates, protein powder, and more! This easy recipe requires just 15 minutes of prep, a food processor, and minimal ingredients!
After sharing my Cookie Dough Protein Bars, which are made with almond butter, I just had to try a peanut butter version. Well, I’m so happy I did, because I find these homemade protein bars to be such a beautiful display of peanut butter and chocolate bliss with some health benefits added in.
Designed for the sweet tooth owner who also prioritizes protein, each bar contains 13 grams of protein. The best part? They are naturally sweetened with no artificial sweeteners, and made with all wholesome ingredients so you can feel good about enjoying them.
I find these healthy protein bars to be the perfect post-workout snack, or even dessert on a nightly basis. Feel free to customize the recipe to make your own protein bars!
Let’s discuss the simple ingredients for these tasty treats. You can find the full list of ingredients at any grocery store.
Ingredients for Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars:
Natural Creamy Peanut Butter: Unsweetened natural peanut butter is the main ingredient here! It brings protein, fat, and stickiness to ensure everything holds together nicely.
Oats (or Almond Flour): Adding complex carbs and some nutty flavor, quick oats or old fashioned oats act as a sort of flour to keep the wet ingredients cohesive.
Protein Powder: Brings extra protein to the bars so that we’re nailing our daily value of protein. I use unsweetened unflavored protein powder so that the chocolate and peanut butter flavor shines through. Nevertheless, vanilla protein powder works great here.
Medjool Dates: The sweetener! We use pitted dates as a sticky sweetener to make these protein bars naturally sweet. Dates contain fiber, antioxidants, and minerals, bringing their own health qualities.
Hemp Seeds (optional): A great source of omega-3 healthy fats, I like adding hemp seeds for a boost of nutrition. You can replace them with chia seeds (beware of the crunchy texture) or ground flax seed.
Pure Vanilla Extract and Ground Cinnamon: Both are optional, but both add delightful warm flavor to these healthy snack bars to give them some flavorful nuance.
Sea Salt: Big flavor enhancer! Salt makes the bars taste rich and decadent.
Chocolate Chips: Needed for the chocolate layer! Pick your favorite kind of chocolate chips. I use semi-sweet chocolate chips, but sugar-free chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips work great too.
Butter: A little butter gets melted in with the chocolate chips to ensure the chocolate layer is a little softer. Without it, the chocolate layer is very stiff. Melted coconut oil works great too.
Recipe customizations:
- Swap out the peanut butter for cashew butter, sunflower seed butter, or almond butter. Any nut or seed butter works as long as it is well stirred and drippy.
- Use 3/4 cup of oat flour instead of oats if you already have some on hand.
- If you’d like, sprinkle the chocolate layer with flaky sea salt before refrigerating.
- Mix in 1/2 to 2/3 cup of chopped walnuts, pecans, raisins, or dried cranberries.
Now that we’ve covered the basic ingredients, let’s make these delicious peanut butter protein bars!
How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars:
Transfer the oats to a food processor and blend them to chop them finer.
Add the remaining ingredients for the peanut butter layer to the food processor. Process until a thick dough forms.
Press the peanut butter mixture into a parchment-lined 8-inch square pan, creating an even layer.
Microwave the chocolate chips and butter in a microwave-safe bowl for 20-second intervals, stirring well in between each interval, until melted (about 60-80 seconds total).
Spread the melted chocolate mixture over the peanut butter layer evenly.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or until the chocolate has set up.
Pull on the parchment paper to release the whole batch from the dish and transfer to a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut the protein bars into individual portions. Enjoy!
Store protein bars in a zip lock bag or an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
Freeze for up to 3 months in a freezer-safe container or a ziplock bag.
If you’re like me and you enjoy having a sweet protein-filled treat available at a moment’s notice, keep these homemade peanut butter protein bars on constant rotation!
Love a simple snack? Also try out some of my favorite snack recipes.
More Healthy Snack Recipes:
- Chocolate Almond Butter Protein Cups
- Peach Baked Oatmeal Muffins
- 5-Ingredient Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Oatmeal Protein Balls
- No Bake Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cups
- Lemon Poppy Seed Energy Balls
Enjoy this easy protein bar recipe!
Peanut Butter Protein Bars
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups medjool dates pitted
- 1 cup quick oats or finely ground almond flour
- 1 cup protein powder or more almond flour*
- ½ cup unsweetened peanut butter
- 4 Tbsp hemp seeds
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract*
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ¼ cup water*
Chocolate Layer:
- 1 ⅓ cup chocolate chips
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter or coconut oil
Instructions
- Transfer the oats to a food processor and blend them to chop them finer.
- Add the remaining ingredients for the peanut butter layer to the food processor. Process until a thick dough forms.
- Press the peanut butter mixture into a parchment-lined 8-inch square pan, creating an even layer.
- Microwave the chocolate chips and butter in a microwave-safe bowl for 20-second intervals, stirring well in between each interval, until melted (about 60-80 seconds total).
- Spread the melted chocolate mixture over the peanut butter layer evenly.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or until the chocolate has set up.
- Pull on the parchment paper to release the whole batch from the dish and transfer to a cutting board. Use a sharp knife to cut the protein bars into individual portions. Enjoy!
- Store protein bars in a zip lock bag or an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
Hi Julia!
I gave your recipe 5 stars, even though I have not made it yet. I seem to have this strange ability to be able to “taste” how a recipe will taste just by reading through it!! I think I inherited it, many years ago, from my mother who, instead of reading a book of fiction before bed like most people, would read cookbooks!! Anyway, I love all your recipes and am so glad to have stumbled upon your site a couple of years ago.
My question for this recipe: I don’t have a food processor and am not intending on getting one at this stage of my life! Do you think that it would be possible to make without a processor and how might I go about doing that? Any advice on how to accomplish this without having one. I do have a couple of blenders, one is for smoothies, the other is an old workhorse Oster blender from the mid seventies. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this!
Hi Phyllis! Thank you for your sweet words and for the nice review!
I’m so happy you asked this question! I actually have first-hand experience using a blender instead of a food processor, and it didn’t work out very well. It could be that my blender wasn’t powerful enough, but let’s just say it hasn’t been the same since.
All of that said, I still have hope that you could make the recipe. First, I would finely chop the dates as small as you can get them so that they mix in with the other ingredients. If you have a stand mixer, using it to mix everything together will probably be the easiest way. Otherwise, you would need to mix the ingredients by hand in a bowl, and that might be pretty frustrating. Almond butter can be difficult to stir into other ingredients. So to summarize: chop the dates as finely as you can and use a stand mixer to mix everything. If you don’t have a stand mixer, I would honestly skip it because I think it would be too frustrating.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions and thanks again for reaching out!