Oat Uncode

Monday morning chocolate and oat bars

My mother insists on breakfast and I insist on a yummy breakfast. While flipping pancakes and waffles is a weekend affair in my household, on a weekday morning, I try to rustle up easy delights.

My ideal breakfast treat is the one that cheers me up when Monday morning blues need to be battled.  It should make me rise and shine and fill me up with energy enough to accompany Spiderman on his next expedition.

If you ask me more, I’ll say it should go well with my cup of milky-masalewali chai, hot chocolate, fruit juice, yogurt smoothie or whatever my choice of drink is on that particular day. It should be convenient to stock and easy to make as well.

Once such creation is the oat and chocolate bar. Filled with the goodness of oats, dry fruits, healthy seeds and coconut powder, the bars ooze chocolate and their sugar content is just enough to pep me up for the day to come.

I’ve called them Monday morning chocolate and oat bars because I promise they will brighten up the toughest seeming weekday for you.

Ingredients for the oat bar:

2 tbsp butter, 1 cup raw oats, 1 tbsp cup pumpkin seeds, 1 tbsp raisins, 1 tbsp desiccated coconut powder, 1 tbsp dry fig (finely chopped), 1 tbsp almonds (roughly chopped), ½ cup brown sugar

Ingredients for chocolate ganache:

1 cup good quality chocolate (finely chopped), ½ cup cream

Method:

Microwave chocolate until it melts completely. If you don’t have a microwave you can heat chocolate in a double boiler until it turns liquid.

Add cream to it and mix well. Leave it aside and allow it to come down to the room temperature.

In a thick-bottomed pan, roast oats on a slow flame for 3 to 4 minutes and keep them aside.

Now heat one tablespoon of butter and add almonds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, desiccated coconut powder and dry figs to it.

Roast all the ingredients until light brown in colour or until they give out a faint, nutty aroma.

Once done, remove from the pan and mix it with roasted oats. Allow it to come down to room temperature.

Now heat another tablespoon of butter and add all the brown sugar to it. Melt it on slow flame and continue to stir it until all the granules have completely dissolved.

Add oats to the caramelized sugar and mix well.

Grease a baking tray with butter and line the oat mixture to create a base for your bar. Do this quickly as sugar has a tendency to crystallize and harden.

Pour a thick layer of chocolate ganache on top of the oats and smoothen it with the back of a spoon.

On top of this, add another layer roasted oats and even it out with the back of a spoon.

Let the tray chill in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours before cutting it into fat, rectangular squares.

Stock the bars in an air-tight jar for 3-4 days and enjoy during breakfast hours. You can even wrap them in foil and snack on them for a midday sugar rush.

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