NO BAKE COOKIES & CREAM PROTEIN BARS
These No Bake Cookies & Cream Protein Bars will leave your tastebuds dancing for joy! The base layer tastes like the cookie part of an Oreo, while the cream layer is almost like a thick frosting with cookies and cream bits scattered throughout. It might be hard to believe, but each bar has only 5 grams of sugar (including the mini Oreos) and a whopping 17g protein. These make the perfect protein-packed dessert or anytime snack. Just be careful – they are addicting! 😉
Protein powder recommendation
For this recipe, I recommend a whey-casein blend, like Quest Protein in Vanilla Milkshake or Cookies & Cream flavor. Being no bake, this recipe is a bit more forgiving, so you may be able to use a whey isolate or even a vegan blend! You may need to adjust the amount of liquid or flour to get the right consistency, however.
Sweetener recommendations
To keep the sugar content down, I used a granulated erythritol sweetener for the base (like Swerve), and a powdered erythritol sweetener for the cream layer. Both measure the same as sugar. You can use any sweetener you like so long as you adjust for desired sweetness. Some sweeteners are much sweeter than sugar, while others are less sweet, so be aware of this!
Erythritol is a naturally-derived sugar alcohol, that typically does not cause gastric upset unless consumed in excess. It tastes very similar to sugar but only has 0.2kcal per gram instead of 4kcal per gram. The one odd thing I’ve found about erythritol is a slight cooling sensation on the tongue after eating it… but it’s not something you really notice until you think about it. For this reason, I sometimes prefer a monk fruit-erythritol blend, or a stevia-erythritol blend.
Other recommendations
For the base, I used almond flour which gave the most perfect dense and crumbly texture! Not to mention that Oreo-like flavor. Due to the unique attributes of almond flour, it’s hard to give a substitute, but if I had to say, tiger nut flour would probably be the closest.
I used coconut flour to thicken the cream layer, but you can use twice as much of any white flour such as all-purpose flour, cassava flour, cake flour, gluten free baking flour, sweet white sorghum flour, or tapioca flour.
Other recommendations
I used low fat cream cheese and low fat cottage cheese blend in the cream layer. You can also use fat free cream cheese, Neufchatel cheese, or dairy-free cream cheese in place of the reduced fat cream cheese. If you don’t have or don’t like cottage cheese, try using nonfat plain Greek yogurt or dairy-free Greek yogurt. If you also use a vegan blend in these bars, they can easily be made dairy-free and vegan.
The mini Oreos actually are dairy-free too, but they’re not gluten-free. If you’re gluten-intolerant, try using Glutino chocolate vanilla creme cookies instead (the rest of the recipe is already gluten-free). Another option if you’re looking for both dairy-free and wheat-free (with organic ingredients I might add!) would be Newman-O’s (available at most health food stores).
Now, here’s the recipe for these No Bake Cookies & Cream Protein Bars – please rate and comment below to let me know how you liked this one 😉
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No Bake Cookies & Cream Protein Bars
Ingredients
Cookie layer
- 1/2 cup (60g) vanilla or chocolate whey blend protein powder I used Quest in Vanilla Milkshake
- 6 tbsp. almond flour or all-purpose flour, gluten-free blend, oat flour, spelt flour
- 6 tbsp. calorie-free sweetener* I used one that measures 1:1 like sugar
- 3 tbsp. special dark cacao powder
- 3-4 tbsp. water
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil melted
Cream layer
- 1/2 cup (60g) vanilla or chocolate whey blend protein powder I used Quest in Vanilla Milkshake
- 3/4 cup calorie-free powdered sweetener* I used one that measures 1:1 like sugar
- 1/4 cup coconut flour* or 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, cake flour, gluten-free blend, tapioca flour
- 8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese* or fat free cream cheese
- 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese*
- 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
- 10 mini Oreos* or Glutino or Newman-O’s
*See blog post above for more substitutions.
Instructions
- Combine ingredients for cookie layer until a crumbly dough forms.
- Press into the bottom of a 7″x5″ baking dish lightly coated with cooking spray.
- Combine ingredients for cream layer (except cookies) in a blender or food processor and blend/process until smooth.
- Add cookies and pulse blender or food processor until distributed throughout batter.
- Pour cream layer over base and place in the freezer for 2-3 hours until set.
- Cut into eight pieces and enjoy!
- Store any leftovers in the fridge up to one week or in the freezer up to one month.
Notes
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