While I was dieting, I searched high and low for a dessert that I can have that won’t break the scales. A non guilty treat that I can have when those wild cravings hit in. After a lot of experimenting, I found protein baked oats was my holy grail.
I wanted something warm, that had chocolate, a bit sweet, and had a crunchy, fudgy, and cakey texture. I want it also to be low calorie, low sugar and filling. Sounds impossible, right?
Before I lay out the recipe (enough for 2), I want to talk about the ingredients. Everyone of us has different diet requirements so I’ll try to mention all the possible alternatives:
- Oats OR gluten free oats (not the quick oats)
- Isolate whey protein powder OR vegan protein powder (preferable non flavoured)
- Chia seeds (to hold the mixture together)
- 85% or higher dark chocolate OR dark vegan chocolate (the less sugar in them, the better)
- Low calorie no sugar syrup any flavour you like OR date/grape/carob molasses
Of course you can add into the recipe fruits or nuts if you want, but I’m keeping it simple and low calorie as possible. If you were to put fresh fruit, take out about 125 ml or less water from the required water needed for the recipe to avoid the mixture being too soggy after it is baked.
Now, preheat your oven to 200 degrees. Then, you need a silicon baking pan, a whisk and start mixing:
125 grams of oats (coarse or fine, up to you)
125 grams of protein powder
1 teaspoon of chia seeds
1 teaspoon of baking powder
After mixing the dry ingredients, pour over them 375 ml of water and whisk them all together.
Place the pan in the oven on the middle rack and put 15 minutes on your timer.
When 10 minutes have passed, open the oven and place a square of your dark chocolate or 20 grams of dark chocolate chips over the mixture.
When 15 minutes have passed, take the pan out of the oven and drizzle over it 1.5 teaspoons of syrup or molasses. Since the chocolate has been melted at this point, you can mix it with the syrup or molasses and spread it all over the dessert with a spoon.
And bon appetite!
This dessert can go roughly around 400 calories, so share it with someone you love or cut the ingredients and cooking time in half to make a portion enough for 1 person. If you want to consume the whole thing, my advice… have it after your workout!
It’s very filling, and it’s good for satisfying your sweet tooth, taking into consideration that it’s not something you can have everyday. You can have it when you have cravings for something sweet and to be honest, better than ready made desserts. As there are no hydrogenated fats in it or processed flour or sugar.
You want to call it a healthier version of a cake… I don’t mind!
Give it a try and let me know how it turns out with you, and if you made any upgrades to it, I would love to see your creativity!
If you need nutritional advice along with personal training to achieve better results during your weight loss journey, give me a call!