These aren’t your classically chalky protein bars, no these are the best homemade protein bars ever! Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bars are a Healthy snack recipe!
Your goal this year was to take better care of yourself and you can still totally do it. Eating healthy snacks throughout the day have really helped Carrian and I to make better choices at mealtime, keep our metabolism going and feed our muscles the protein they need to be healthy and strong. These homemade chocolate chip cookie dough protein bars are the perfect example of how eating healthy doesn’t have to be torture.
We all know that protein bars can be some of the worst tasting healthy snacks out there. You’re trying so hard to lose weight, get in shape or just make better choices for your body and then snacks like that kind of ruin you. Our homemade chocolate chip cookie dough protein bars are so not that way. They literally taste like cookie dough, but with a nice big dose of protein in them.
What Do You Need to Make Protein Bars at Home?
Here is your grocery shopping list:
- Almond or Cashew Butter – you can make your own at home (see section below) or go with store bought, this acts as the binding agent for the bars
- Honey – adds natural sweetness, you could also use maple syrup or a combination of both
- Oat Flour – you can make your own by grinding up your oats in a food processor
- Cake Flour – more delicate than all purpose flour
- Vanilla Protein Powder – Optimum Nutrition is our preferred brand for this recipe
- Salt – enhances all the flavors
- Vanilla – adds flavor
- Butter Extract – purely for taste, so feel free to omit if you want
- Skim Milk – helps bind everything together, you could also use almond, oat, coconut milk if you want dairy free
- Mini Chocolate Chips – we prefer the mini chocolate chips and be sure to save some to sprinkle on top
The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.
Can Protein Bars Make you Fat?
Now let’s get one thing out of the way, can protein bars make you fat? Actually, many things can make you fat if you’re eating way too much of it. Protein bars still have sugar, calories, and fat. Just because there’s protein in there doesn’t mean you can eat a few of them a day. Carrian likes to maintain muscle so one serving would be good for her, while I’m building muscle so I take in more protein in a day.
Will Protein Bars Help you Lose Weight?
Protein bars can help you lose weight by providing the essential protein you need for muscle growth or maintenance and by helping you to stay fuller longer, thus not needing extra helpings at meal time. The digestive process also uses your metabolism so eating more often with healthy snacks is a great idea.
How to Make Homemade Protein Bars with Protein Powder
In order to make protein bars with protein powder you need a good binding agent, which in this case would be almond butter or cashew butter. We use whatever we have on hand. The powder should be a good quality powder more than ever before because you’re about to add extra calories with the flours, sugars etc so we need a protein powder that’s lower in sugar and higher in protein otherwise you miss the purpose of this healthy snack recipe for homemade chocolate chip cookie dough protein bars.
Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bars
To make homemade chocolate chip cookie dough protein bars, consider making your own almond or cashew butter. Heat the almond butter and honey or maple syrup (sometimes we use a combination)
To Make Homemade Almond Butter
It’s as simple as throwing whole nuts into a blender and mixing until smooth. That’s literally it. We much prefer the flavor and texture of homemade versus it’s super oily cousin at the store.
Remember, the nuts will heat up which is not something we want, not yet at least so make sure you start and end with pulsing in the blender, checking every now and again to see how warm it is getting.
How to Store Protein Bars
Store these bars in an airtight container at room temperature. They are also great in the refrigerator if you prefer a chilled protein bar. They also freeze really well, so you could make a double or triple batch and freeze a bunch of them. They make a great after school snack for the kiddos!
If you’re looking for an easy and healthy snack that will help you hit your protein for the day (11 grams in just one bar!), then these homemade protein bars are a great option! They taste just like chocolate chip cookie dough!
More Healthy Snacks to Try:
- Homemade Granola
- S’mores Energy Bites
- Aussie Bites
- Peanut Butter Greek Yogurt Dip
- Chocolate Swirl Berry Yogurt Bark
- Oatmeal Cookie Energy Bites
Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Bars
Description
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Almond or Cashew Butter *See note
- 1/2 Cup Honey
- 1 1/4 Cup Oat Flour
- 1/2 Cup Cake Flour
- 2 Scoops [Vanilla Protein Powder], about 2/3 cups
- 1 Pinch Salt
- 3/4 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 1/4 Teaspoon Butter Extract
- 1 Tablespoon Skim Milk
- 1/3 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips plus more to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Prepare a 9x5" loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Place the almond butter and honey in a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals until you can stir it together smoothly. Set aside to cool a little.
- In a large bowl, combine all remaining ingredients and then pour in the melted ingredients, stirring or using your hands to combine.
- Press the mixture gently into the pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes then cut into bars, and store in a sealed container in the fridge.
Notes
Nutrition
Recommended Products
Desirae Shigematsu
Do you cook your cake flour first so it’s not raw? It says all over my cake flour box not to eat raw.
Sweet Basil
Hi Desirae! I honestly do not cook it first, but you definitely could.
Sara Crookston
These are so yummy. We’ve been making them for awhile now and sometimes they’re the only thing I eat in a day! Maybe not the best, but oh well. They really do taste like some sort of chocolate chip cookie. But even better!
My only question is how do you get your chocolate chips melted so much? I’m thinking maybe I let my mixture cool down too much before I stir in the chocolate chips? How long do you let the mixture cool before adding them? I can’t wait to make these again! probably in the next few days!
Sara Crookston
Oh, I forgot to mention I use almond flour instead of oat flour! So much yummier!
Sweet Basil
I just let the mixture cool while I measure out the dry ingredients and then mix them all together. The chocolate chips get a little melty and then I stick a few chocolate chips on top after I press the dough into the pan. So glad you enjoy these! They are one of our favorites!
Kelli Allen
What kind of protein powder should I use?
Sweet Basil
We like Optimum Nutrition
Dee Knell
Just made these and they were great! Yummy healthy snack!
Sweet Basil
Thanks Dee! Glad you liked them!
Kelly | Maverick Baking
These look DELICIOUS!
Sweet Basil
Thanks Kelly!