Lunchbox Apple Cinnamon Protein Bars

Most protein bars are dense and chewy. These are soft and cakey, closer to a baked oatmeal square, which is what younger kids actually want in a lunchbox. Applesauce and egg whites do the heavy lifting so there is no butter and no nut butter, just a spoonful of sunflower seed butter for richness. Nine grams of protein per bar and they cut clean once fully cooled.

Ingredients

• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 medium apple, peeled and finely diced
• 2 scoops (60g) vanilla whey protein powder
• 1/2 cup liquid egg whites
• 1/3 cup creamy sunflower seed butter
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup hemp hearts
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350F and line a 9-inch square pan with parchment.
2. Whisk the applesauce, egg whites, sunflower seed butter, and maple syrup in a large bowl until smooth, which takes about a minute of steady effort since the seed butter resists at first.
3. Stir in the oats, protein powder, hemp hearts, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt, then fold in the diced apple.
4. Spread the batter into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for 28 to 32 minutes, until the center springs back when pressed.
5. Cool completely in the pan, at least 1 hour, before cutting into 12 bars. Cutting warm gives you a crumbly mess.
6. Store in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or wrap and freeze for 3 months.

Tips

• Whey protein dries out baked goods fast. Pull the pan at 28 minutes and check, because 4 extra minutes is the difference between soft and chalky.
• Grate the apple instead of dicing it if your kid objects to visible fruit. The moisture and flavor stay, the texture disappears.
• This is the softest bar here, so wrap each one in parchment before it goes in a lunchbox. Bare bars stick to each other and to the container lid.

FAQ

Can I use quick oats?

Yes. The bars come out softer and more uniform, closer to a muffin than a granola bar. Do not use steel cut oats, which stay hard.

Do these need to be refrigerated?

Keep the batch in the fridge because of the fruit and egg white. A single bar packed in the morning is fine unrefrigerated for a school day, roughly 5 hours.

Can I make them dairy-free?

Use a vanilla plant protein powder and add 2 extra tablespoons of applesauce, since plant protein absorbs more liquid. Everything else in the recipe is already dairy-free.

How do I make them without protein powder?

Swap in 1/2 cup of oat flour and cut the maple syrup to 3 tablespoons. Protein lands around 5g per bar, mostly from the oats and egg whites.

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