Lightened-Up Seven Layer Bars

Whether you’re baking a batch of goodies for a holiday cookie swap or making something special for Santa, these Lightened-Up Seven Layer Bars should hit the spot. For a decadent dessert, they’re made with some pretty healthy ingredients: whole grain oats, walnuts, dried cranberries, and chickpeas, and each bar has just 160 calories.

The bottom layer of the bars starts with chickpeas, a nutritious ingredient that I sometimes use as a fat replacer in desserts. If you’re trying to add more pulses to your diet, chickpeas make it easy.

Gooey, decadent  Seven Layer Bars are a classic cookie swap treat. This recipe is still pretty decadent, but it’s a whole lot lower in fat, sugar, and calories than the original.

Seven Layer Bars are typically made with 2 cups of chocolate and butterscotch chips, sweetened condensed milk, nuts, lots of shredded coconut, and a crust of graham cracker crumbs with melted butter or margarine, so they’re typically high in fat, saturated fat, and calories. For this recipe fix, I slimmed ’em down and boosted the nutrition with a bottom layer made of oats, chickpeas, wheat germ, just 2 tablespoons of butter, and 2 tablespoons of organic canola oil. In a million years, you would never know there were beans in the crust! I cut back on the chocolate chips and coconut and used dried cranberries.

I  kept the sweetened condensed milk (though I switched to the low-fat version) because, well, they wouldn’t really be Seven Layer Bars without it.

One of these bars has 160 calories and 2.5 grams of saturated fat. Not bad for a sweet holiday dessert and a lot better than traditional Seven Layer Bars with 200 calories and 7 grams of saturated fat.

Lightened-Up Seven Layer Bars

Nutrition Information

• Serves: 30

• Serving size: (1 bar),
• Calories: 160,

• Fat: 7g,
• Saturated fat: 2.5g,
• Carbohydrates: 20g,
• Sugar: 14g,
• Sodium: 50mg,
• Fiber: 2g,
• Protein: 3g,

Recipe type: Dessert

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You can easily modify this recipe to be gluten free by eliminating the wheat germ (or switching to ground flaxseed) and by using gluten-free oats. For a nut-free recipe, nix the walnuts and replace them with ½ cup roughly chopped toasted, unsalted pumpkin seeds (also called pepitas). To cut back on the sugar, replace the sweetened shredded coconut with unsweetened. Two tablespoons of sweetened coconut has 5 grams of sugar --- that's over a teaspoon --- while the same amount of unsweetened coconut has 1 gram.

Ingredients

• 1½ cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• ¼ cup wheat germ
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons organic canola oil
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¾ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
• ¾ cup sweetened or unsweetened shredded coconut
• One 14-ounce can low-fat sweetened condensed milk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly oil or coat a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. Spread the oats evenly on a baking sheet and bake until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to ensure even browning. Remove and set aside. Place the walnuts on the same baking sheet and bake, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. (Keep a watchful eye on the nuts so they don't burn!) Remove and set aside.
3. Place the toasted oats in the bowl of a food processor and process for 10 seconds. Add the beans, wheat germ, butter, canola oil, and salt and pulse until well combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan, and smooth down evenly with your fingers or palms to form a bottom crust.
4. Top evenly with the chocolate chips, cranberries, walnuts, and coconut. Pour the condensed milk evenly over the layers.
5. Bake 22 to 25 minutes, or until the coconut is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and cut into thirty 1¾ x 2-inch bars. Best if stored in the refrigerator.

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