Good husbands have a busy life. They work hard all day, they bathe the children in the evening, they selflessly taste huge volumes of sweet baked goods and then, just for good measure, they get up in the night to feed the baby. And as if that weren’t enough, in the morning they let their wife sleep in as late as possible and thus forgo their own breakfast. Lucky? Me? You bet.
The least lucky old me can do is produce some form of portable breakfast snack for my good husband to take to work with him. I’m going to be honest with you… these bars aren’t the kind of treat you promise to your toddler as pudding. If you did that you might get something plastic thrown at you. What I mean is, they’re pretty good for you and they taste that way too. Mr B likes them though. And that’s what counts.
NB: These are not oaty breakfast bars, they’re not flapjacks, they’re kind of cakey in texture and crunchy on the top.
Ingredients:
- 100g butter
- 3 tbsp honey
- 100g brown sugar
- 200g Ready Brek
- 100g sesame seeds
- 50g desiccated coconut
- 100g raisins
- 2 tbsp apple juice
- 2 ripe, mashed bananas (large or if you only have small ones then add another for good measure)
- 100g milk chocolate broken into smallish pieces
Find a tray and line it. The one I used was about 30cm x 20cm but really, you can use any size. Just depends on how thick you like your bars. Don’t forget to preheat your oven to Gas 3.
Take the butter, honey and sugar and put into a large saucepan. Heat on a medium heat until everything has melted and looks syrupy. Take off the heat and add all the other ingredients except for the chocolate. Using a wooden spoon mix the ‘dough’ together. Lastly add the chocolate bits. (If you add them any earlier they melt into the mix and you don’t get that satisfying discovery of a whole piece of chocolate half way through a bite.) Pop in the oven on the middle shelf for about 45 mins until the edges are starting to brown. Usual routine of scoring whilst warm and then leave to cool on a wire rack. Cut into squares once completely cool.
You can adapt this recipe and substitute any dried fruits, nuts etc. Bit of a storecupboard sweep recipe.
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Holly Bell 
Hello,
What can I replace Ready Break with (not available here)? Oats?
Love your blog
Could try with oats but I’ll be honest, I don’t know. These are quite ‘puffy’ with Ready Brek so might be less so (and better) with oats! xxx
Help – followed this recipe and they have come out all kind of spongy and just falling apart not at all like a breakfast bar. The mixture seemed really dry with the 200g of Ready Brek any ideas how to rectify for next time other than not use as much Ready Brek?
Let me look at this as soon as I get home. Not back until tomorrow. Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
Hi there, I’ve just re-made it and also asked my friend to make it first thing and they have both turned out okay. The texture is not crunchy like an oaty bar – it’s cakey with a crunchy top. I will amend the post to make this clear. However my mix (and friends) were not dry. This is going to sound silly but did you use measuring spoons for the honey and digital scales for everything else? Also, wondering about the size of your bananas? x
Thanks Holly. Now knowing how the texture should be helps, a friend of mine tried one of the bars and said exactly the same thing that it wasa cakey so maybe it wasn’t a fail after all and they turned out how they should! Husband likes them so guess all is well. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Love the site and the recipes, off to make the fairy cakes with my daughter when she gets home from school sadly no Thomas toppers here so wont show her the pictures of them!
No worries, it’s my fault. I should have been more clear on how they look and their texture. My husband loves them, I think it’s the intense energy hit from all that banana and ready brek. Not my personal fave bake in the world so maybe more a man friendly bar?! Fairy cakes much more my thing – and you’ve reminded me I need to stock up on Thomas toppers again! xx
Thanks Cath! Warn him though that they're on the healthy side… wouldn't want the choc to make him think they're naughty treats! x
Wow – I discovered your blog through Crumbs and am I glad?! These bars will be great for my night-shift-working hubby to stash about his person for snacking on to keep the old energy levels up. Thanks for sharing! x
Sesame rules. Can you tell I bought a huge bag and need some space in my cupboard…? See the carrot and quinoa salad as evidence.
I think homemade bars are the healthiest snacks ever! Never used sesame seeds in mine but i am totally digging the idea of that. So, i will add those next time :)