Wholesome chocolate brownie breakfast bars, packed with nutritious ingredients & chocolatey goodness!
I’ve been eating chocolate for breakfast as long as I can remember.
Cocoa Krispies was one of my favorite childhood breakfast cereals, and Sunday mornings always involved my dad making pancakes and throwing extra chocolate chips into the batter of the batch for me. Regular readers of my blog know there is definitely no shortage of healthy breakfast recipes on this website that include chocolate in some way. From 5-Minute Chocolate Oatmeal, to Brownie Batter Pancakes, to Chocolate Banana Bread…
Chocolate is my absolute favorite thing to eat, and I don’t waste any time getting my chocolate fix first thing in the morning!
These healthy & filling chocolate breakfast bars are made up of nutritious ingredients such as whole-grain oats, antioxidant-rich cocoa, black beans, and peanut butter.
Whether you eat them as part of a balanced breakfast or grab one or two for an on-the-go healthy snack, they are the perfect way to satisfy your chocolate craving in a healthy way.
As always, if you try out the recipe, please feel free to tag me: @chocolatecoveredkatie on Instagram – so I can like your posts!
There’s no baking required, and the breakfast bars are portable and can easily be packed into a lunchbox. You can also make up a big batch and freeze leftovers for a rushed morning. They’re very low in calories, so I definitely wouldn’t recommend eating just one as a full breakfast, but they make a great addition to a heart-healthy vegetable scramble or a large breakfast smoothie.
Really, who wouldn’t want to wake up to the following pictures first thing on a Monday morning:
Chocolate Brownie Breakfast Bars
Adapted from Unbaked Cookie Dough Bars
Chocolate Brownie Breakfast Bars
Print This Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 can black beans (250g after draining)
- 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- just under 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp nut butter or allergy-friendly sub
- 2 tbsp coconut oil or additional nut butter
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, agave, or honey
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp rolled or quick oats
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup or more mini or regular chocolate chips (omit at own risk)
- chocolate coating, listed below
Instructions
Line an 8×8 pan with parchment or wax paper. Drain and rinse the beans very well. Add all ingredients except chocolate chips to a food processor, and process until very smooth. (A blender works if you must, but you should routinely stop the blender and stir to ensure ingredients blend evenly.) Stir in chocolate chips. Smooth into prepared pan. Freeze.
Chocolate Coating: Chill at least a half hour, then either melt 1/2 cup chocolate chips with 2 tsp oil to form a thin sauce OR stir together 1/4 cup cacao or cocoa powder, 2 tbsp melted coconut oil or cacao butter, and 1/4 cup pure maple syrup or agave to form a sauce. Spread sauce over the bars, then re-freeze to set the chocolate. Cut into bars – To prevent the chocolate shell from cracking, cut either before chocolate freezes fully or after thawing a little. Store leftovers in the freezer, and thaw before eating. The bars are portable and can sit out at room temperature if the non-coconut coating option is used.
Links Of The Day:
Chocolate Oatmeal Breakfast Cupcakes – To Go
Michelle says
Totally caught myself licking the mixer spatula…can’t wait to try once they’re complete!
Andrea says
Made these today without chocolate chips and they are delicious! I can eat the whole pan!
Sandra says
So good! I made them last night. I also love the fact that I didn’t have to turn on the oven and they were done in the freezer right when I was done eating dinner. : D Thanks for all the great recipes!
Robin says
These ‘breakfast’ bars are NOT breakfast. They’re dessert. Sugar for breakfast is always a bad idea. Also Agave is 90% fructose, and is MUCH worse than plain sugar. It also happens to give me cramps and diarrhea. Your recipes still have a whole lot of sugar. Exchanging sucrose for honey or brown sugar, and especially Agave really does not makes things much healthier. Personally, I can’t eat stuff like this. I have to stay away from stuff this sweet. Do yourself a favor and try to quit sugar for real. Do it while you’re young, and you could save yourself a world of suffering later.
Pat says
Cholesterol? Where is that coming from? Aren’t these vegan (unless you use honey?)
Jason Sanford says
Hi! Sorry for the confusion. Be sure to read the paragraph under the nutrition label 😉
Jason (media relations)
Darlene Walsh says
I made these a few times now and they are so good! I love the shell on top and the softer bottom. It’s a great texture and taste!
Raven says
I really would like to try these but beans of any sort are a no-go in my household. I saw someone suggest replacing the beans with green bananas, but bananas are another no-go ingredient. Any other suggestion?
Theresa says
Ummm these are absolutely delicious. Sinful! I made these intending on giving them to my 4 year in for breakfast, but they taste like dessert! I can’t go back now because he’s already expecting to eat these in the morning, but these taste like the most delicious brownies. I ate 2 of then immediately because they were so yummy.
Sita says
My kids and I love these. Even my kid who hates black beans in any other recipe loves them. We leave them in the freezer and just let them thaw for 5 minutes before eating. The only change I make is to skip the chocolate topping but add those extra chocolate chips to the batter (lazy).
Lyf says
I used red kidney beans for a different flavour, halved the maple syrup, omitted the choc chips and baked them for 10 minutes for a firmer texture. They tasted wonderful even with all these changes and was still sweet enough. I highly recommend using red kidney beans because they have a softer more subtle flavour. I agree with the previous commenter about this being more of a dessert or snack. I love Katie but there is no way this recipe can pass as breakfast just because it has oats.
JS Mom says
I broke my magic bullet with this recipe bc it is thick. I was determined to finish, so I used my immersion blender and elbow grease. Delicious! I may get a food processor now. Thanks for the recipe!
Elizabeth says
So good! I used dry beans that I cooked at home and it turned out I hadn’t made quite enough, so I eyeballed a reduction on all the other ingredients, but upped to cocoa powder (3 heaping Tbs b/c: chocolate) and it came out great! I didn’t do the frosting because that seemed like a bit of a stretch for something that’s supposed to be breakfast-appropriate, but I found they were sweet enough (not regular brownie sweet, but maybe protein bar sweet) without. I stored them in the fridge rather than the freezer and they were fine for the week that they sat there. B/c I find cold chocolate doesn’t have any flavor and is just kind of hard, I skipped the chips as well, and found the flavor was great even without. I did try adding a couple pieces of room-temp Trader Joe’s Simply Lite sugar-free dark chocolate to one of them and that was delightful as well. Definitely something I’d make again. Thanks Katie 🙂
sita says
I make these often because everyone in my house loves them, including the bean haters. I make them and freeze them. Kids have just requested I make these for our next camping trip. Past weekend I served them to another family of 4 who all devoured them and wanted the recipe.