I think I’ve officially created my first brand-new recipe! I almost always take recipes from different places and put them together into a cake or another dessert, and I’m constantly switching out ingredients, but this time I used only the most general of inspirations, and just went for it in the kitchen. SO. MUCH. FUN. !!! Even more fun than my beautifully windy bike ride this morning with such a dramatic sky:
I really didn’t know what to call these. They were inspired by a post on Pinterest I saw a long time ago called “Man Bars” or “Man Squares” or something. I wasn’t a huge fan of the name to begin with, and then I changed the ingredients to such a degree that I doubt they’re even very similar.
My goal was to finally bake something my vegan classmates could have for this week. I ran around like crazy in the kitchen, throwing everything I had leftover into this recipe, and then made almost a completely different version to make it vegan. It was like a snow flurry, everything scattered this way and that. Plus, the dusting of powdered sugar reminded me of snow flurries too!
Not only is this a flexible, sub what you will, recipe, but the best part is… there’s only ONE step! That’s right, you simply mix everything up at once in one bowl, then dump it in a pan and bake! (Ok, technically, sprinkling powdered sugar on at the end makes it two, but how easy is that?!)
I’m not even sure how to describe these. Making the non-vegan ones reminded me a little of Magic Cookie Bars, in that there was sweetened condensed milk and a lot of other mix ins. The final product is like a chewy chocolate chip bar cookie with lots of textural variety from the walnuts, rice cereal, and gooey chocolate.
For the vegan version I substituted the sweetened condensed milk with a mixture based on bananas and brown sugar, so they came out much darker. They are a lot softer, more like a banana bread texture, which I guess makes sense with the addition of the bananas. They are chocolaty and chewy and delicious. I seriously cannot decide which version I like better!
Both versions are tasty and I can’t wait to see how people like them on Tuesday– I’ll try to remember to update this post with reactions!
Note: I’m printing what I used in the recipes below, but you could easily remove something if you don’t have it, and add it something you do have! My non-vegan batter turned out really thick, like almost bread dough thick, while my vegan one was more like a muffin batter. Both turned out well!
Flurry Bars– Non-Vegan
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1/2 cup pretzel crumbs
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup puffed cereal
- 2 heaping tablespoons peanut butter
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips
- 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt
- Mix everything in a bowl and spread in an 8×8 in pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until set.
- Once cooled, cut into squares and either sprinkle with or toss in powdered sugar.
Flurry Bars– Vegan
- 1 cup pretzel crumbs
- 3/4 cup Oreo crumbs
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup puffed cereal
- 2 heaping tablespoons nut butter (I used almond choco coconut butter– yum!)
- 2 medium bananas, mashed
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Mix everything in a bowl and spread in an 8×8 in pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes until set.
- Once cooled, cut into squares and either sprinkle with or toss in powdered sugar.
Amanda Bakes Cakes 