Chocolate Orange Brownie Baked Oats

There are baked oats, and then there are Chocolate Orange Brownie Baked Oats!

People always assume that dietitians don’t eat cake or never have chocolate but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Nothing makes me happier than a Thursday evening baking session ( Baking Thursday became a thing for me during the pandemic! ) or cycling to a new bakery to try their cardamom buns.

I have spent a lot of time (over a decade) finding my favourite recipes for the baking holy trinity; brownies, chocolate chip cookies and caramel squares. When I started experimenting with baked oats flavours, the logical next step from chocolate was chocolate orange. Texture-wise I wanted to replicate the gooey decadence of a brownie. And so this was born.

To serve: I love these with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and an easy peeler on the side. You can pop them into a lunch box and take them on the go or to work with you. If you are feeling fancy you can cut the oats up into little cubes and layer up with yoghurt and fruit for a breakfast sundae!

Serves 6

Make up to 3 days in advance.

Baking dish – around 25-26cm long by max 20cm wide, and 5cm deep. To get the brownie texture you want the dish to be the right dimensions, if it is too long or wide it will be a bit flatter and less squidgy. I use a narrow dish of around 19cm in width and 25cm long, so it comes out thicker. You could use a square brownie tray also.

Ingredients

200g Oats

2 Bananas (I promise you dont taste them!)

2 Scoops of chocolate protein powder  - Or sub for an additional 50g of oats or ground almonds

2 Tbsp cocoa/cacao powder

½ tsp Baking powder

2 Tbsp Honey

1 Medium orange – All the juice and zest

Milk 250- 300ml  depending on how juicy the orange was

2 Tbsp chocolate chips/ cacao nibs/ 2-4 squares of dark chocolate chopped up

Method

Preheat the oven 180 degrees.

Get your baking dish and using a fork mash, the bananas to a puree in the dish.

Add all of the other ingredients except the milk and mix well.

Slowly add the milk, mixing all the time to ensure it is evenly mixed in. Add enough milk that it is quite liquid, the oats are thirsty!

Sprinkle over the cacao nibs/chocolate chips/chopped chocolate.

Bake for 20 minutes, until cooked through but still soft and squidgy.  

Cool slightly and slice into 6 squares.