Healthy Chocolate Protein Bars

5 from 13 votes

Healthy Chocolate Protein Bars are made with 6 real food ingredients and no added sugar. The perfect low calorie and gluten free protein snack that's simple to make and a treat even picky eaters will love!

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Total Time40

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Diet: Low Calorie

Servings: bars

Author: Megan Olson

Ingredients

2 bananas very ripe
1 cup peanut butter unsalted with no sugar added
1 cup chocolate protein powder
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons chocolate chips or dairy free chocolate chips

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare an 8-inch by 8-inch baking dish with parchment paper.
Blend all ingredients except chocolate in a food processor or blender. Scrape down the sides and blend until smooth.
Transfer the batter to the prepared baking dish and smooth into an even layer. The batter will be sticky. Wetting a spatula with a small amount of water can help with this. Add the chocolate chips on top.
Bake for 30 minutes then remove from the oven and cool at room temperature at least 1 hour before slicing into bars.
Store the bars in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks or in the freezer up to 90 days. My low calorie cookbook has another protein bar recipe and other protein snack options.

Notes

Use a quality protein powder for this recipe. If you use a protein powder that has no flavor or you don't like the taste of the protein powder mixed with water, then you certainly will not like protein bars with that protein powder.
I do not recommend using whey protein powder for this homemade protein bar recipe. The whey will really alter the texture of the bars from chewy to stiff.
Use very ripe bananas with the recipe to add the right amount of sweetness to the recipe. Bananas with brown spots are perfect.
Test the batter before baking to ensure it has the right level of sweetness. Since some protein powders have sweeteners added to them and some do not, you may need to adjust the sweetness of this recipe by adding in maple syrup or another sweetener.

Nutrition