Dark Chocolate Cherry Jam Bars

Dark chocolate cherry jam bars are a healthy Valentine's Day treat you can share with friends and loved ones! This recipe makes a small batch that can easily be doubled. ~Oats, sunflower seeds, cocoa powder, cherry jam~

Remember Valentine's Day in elementary school? Back when you would hang a little paper bag on the outer edge of your desk, and everyone would bring in Valentine's Day cards and treats, and drop one in each classmate's bag? Life decisions were so easy back then. Should I choose Britney Spears or NSYNC Valentine's Day cards? (Please, other children of the nineties, tell me you remember that blessed trend!) Will my classmates like more chocolate-y candy, or should I go with classic candy hearts? ---> Okay wait, back up. I never used the word 'classic' as a third-grader. But you get the gist.

The ONE thing the Valentine's Days of my youth were missing, though, were these dark chocolate cherry jam bars. Because, let's be real, the Inter-webs weren't really a thing yet, so my mom wasn't exactly Google searching 'healthy Valentine's Day treats' in her spare time. It was so much easier to buy Valentine's colored M&M's or boxes of chocolates for my brother and me. NO complaints whatsoever there (my mom is awesome). BUT. I'm still very thrilled to announce that dark chocolate cherry jam bars are now a thing in my life, and I hope yours too.

Okay, for starters, this recipe is adapted from the most amazing strawberry oat crumble bars recipe by Angela Liddon from the Oh She Glows vegan blog. After a few batches of strawberry oat crumble bars last summer, I knew how delightful they were... and then dark chocolate cherry jam bars happened (not quite vegan, though). And everyone lived happily ever after because cherry jam is the bomb and dark chocolate is... dark chocolate.

In truth, these bars are just so incredibly easy. It's really a matter of throwing some oats, sunflower seeds, cocoa powder, and a dash of salt in a food processor to make a flour for the crust. Then you melt together some coconut oil (I tried butter too, and it worked!), honey, and almond butter to get a sticky sweet consistency that binds the crust together. I threw in a couple of dates because they helped make the crust stick together a little better than without. You could actually omit the dates and throw in another tablespoon of honey, but the bars just might be a little more crumbly. Still delicious, though 🙂

So that's it. Throw all of that in a food processor to get your crumbly chocolatey goodness, press half of it in a pan, bake it for a bit, slather on some cherry jam (look for jams with clean, natural ingredients; raspberry or strawberry would also work!), and add the rest of the crumble to the top before baking for a bit longer. Boom. Dark chocolate cherry jam bars.

Oh, and don't forget to throw a generous handful of chocolate chips on top right after you take it out of the oven. They get all melty and may very well be the best part 😉

Happy Valentine's Day! Not that these need a holiday to be eaten... 😉

P.S. For another Valentine's Day treat, try a raspberry almond macaroon tart.

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