Power Patties - Like Breakfast Balls on Steroids

Fuel up with tasty, nutrition-packed little power patties for extra energy any time of day! (Skip to recipe.)

Part cookie, part energy bar, part meal-replacement deal, total delicious snack - these Power Patties pack a hefty punch of nutrition in each compact little disk.

I'm tired of buying expensive boxes of chalky energy bars or over-sweetened granola bars in the hopes of finding that perfect combination of energy booster and convenient snack - something I can feel good about throwing in a lunch box or packing for on-the-go travel nibbles.

Breakfast Balls are still one of my favourite treats to toss in my bag when I don't have time for a proper morning meal as I rush out the door to a hectic day at work. Their sturdiness makes them ideal for hanging around in my purse for a week, or being shoved into a book bag or backpack.

One day I felt like playing around with the recipe. I used less oats and added some nut butter for more protein, a few hemp hearts and chia seeds for their magical properties, a hint of spice. These cookie-like patties are really just a dressed-up version of my popular Breakfast Balls - a bit softer and filled with more good stuff. They can be changed up in all sorts of ways to make them nut-free, or refined-sugar free, too.

These little snacks are real food.

The main sweetness comes from the bananas, so make sure they are very ripe, well past the stage of appetizing-to-eat-fresh (unless you are my husband, who eats them when they are so brown his coworkers gag to watch him!) I generally have to hide a bunch of bananas in the basement to ripen, so the monkeys in my household don't eat them all before I can bake with them.

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Kitchen Frau Notes: to make the Power Patties nut-free, use sunflower seed butter or melted coconut oil instead of peanut butter, and use an extra ½ cup shredded coconut instead of chopped nuts. To make them refined-sugar-free, use raisins, currants, or cacao nibs instead of chocolate chips (cacao nibs being the least sweet option) and use natural peanut butter that has no added sugar.

Instead of mini chocolate chips you can finely chop a bar of dark chocolate.

Power Patties

(gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, vegan, nut-free option, refined-sugar-free-option)

• 4 large, super-ripe bananas (more brown than yellow)
• 2 cups (200gms) old-fashioned, large-flake rolled oats (gluten-free, if necessary)
• ½ cup (60gms) peanut butter or other nut/seed butter
• ½ cup (45 gms) unsweetened shredded coconut
• ½ cup (65gms) raw hemp hearts
• ½ cup (60gms) chopped walnuts or pecans
• ½ cup (90gms) mini chocolate chips, or dried currants, chopped raisins or cacao nibs (65gms)
• ¼ cup (40gms) chia seeds
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Peel and mash bananas well with a potato masher.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well until combined.

You can roll the patties right away, but the dough is a little less sticky if you let it rest for 30 minutes to an hour to let the oats and seeds soak up some of the moisture.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease them with coconut oil.

Take 2 tablespoon portions of the dough, and roll it into balls. A cookie scoop makes the job easy. Squeezing and gently tossing the ball from one had to the other several times helps form it into a neater ball. Place one inch apart on prepared cookie sheets.

Flatten the balls slightly with your fingertips to make 2 inch/5cm patties.

Bake for 12 -14 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottoms. Remove to a rack to cool.

These patties freeze well. I like to pack them, 2 or 3 to a plastic baggie, then freeze them so I can pop them into lunches or grab a baggie of patties and dash out the door. By the time I need a snack they are defrosted and ready to devour.

Makes 36 patties.

Guten Appetit!

 

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