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Sweet blueberries give these magic cookie bars a pop of purple and extra fruit flavor, while banana keeps them easy, healthy, and refined sugar-free!
When magic is already built into the title I’m honestly at a loss for words to describe all the extra _______ the purple brings to these berry bars.
Wizardry?
Magnificence?
Splendliferous-ness? (real word!)
Pure purple perfection?
I am relating to the Supercalifragilous scene form Mary Poppins on a whole new level now – sometimes you just have to string together your own syllables when existing words aren’t cutting it.
The purple color is certainly pretty to look at and partially the cause of my loss for words, but the flavor mix of blueberry + coconut + chocolate is just as astounding as the appearance – maybe more. You know what, I think I’ll just keep the over-the-top wordiness thing rolling for the entire post, cool?
Inspired by my original magic cookie bars made markedly more magical by subbing simple banana puree in lieu of the sweetened condensed milk, I thought it was time for a twist. A stellar spinoff shall we say. Because those bars have quickly become an FOF reader favorite, which I attribute to the fact that they look and taste indulgent while surreptitiously being the easiest thing to make.
The tantalizing trio of nuts, coconut, and chocolate is hard to beat, but if you ask me this purple version pulled it off flawlessly. I like pecans enough, but I love plump juicy baked blueberries a whole lot more. And hey, no one said you couldn’t still add the nuts too! The berry swap also makes them especially summery, and if you haven’t noticed this season is kinda my favorite for recipes…and every other reason besides Christmas.
Almond crust. Yep it’s my favorite 2 ingredient crust back again. Almond flour + maple syrup. You’ve seen it. Maybe you’ve tried it. Hopefully you loved it. Rich, buttery, and beloved by me. Not to mention so easy to make and bake to golden-edged gloriousness.
For best texture, you want to pre-bake the crust by itself for 15 minutes before adding the other goodies on top. And equally as important is letting it cool down before adding the puree and toppings otherwise, the chips will melt and turn the entire top layer chocolate. Delicious but not purple.
If almond flour isn’t your jam, there is an oat flour option here that will work instead.
Purple filling. The purple stuff that holds it all together is a mixture of banana and blueberries pureed together like the simplest smoothie. The banana makes is what makes the bars naturally sweet, and also bake and set perfectly without any additional ingredients.
I used two small ripe bananas (riper = sweeter!) and about half a cup of fresh blueberries, although frozen berries would work too. I blended all that fruity-ness together in this fun new small-sized container for the Vitamix Ascent, which I am loving lately for smoothies and other small batch recipes.
Be sure to spread the puree on top of the crust before adding the chips, coconut, and berries. If you do it the other way around it will be quite the purple mess trying to get everything evenly mixed.
Sprinkled-on stuff. I had a tough time deciding whether to swap out the shredded coconut for blueberries or the nuts, but in the end berry + coconut is too good a pair to pass up. In my original dream vision for this recipe I wanted to use vegan white chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet, but those are tricky to find so I skipped it. In the end I’m glad I stuck with regular chocolate. I forget sometimes just how wicked chocolate + blueberries are together. I gotta say these magic bars are definitely my favorite of the two, and it’s not just because of the color.
These beyond-easy bars brings some badass berry flavor with a blazing purple-blue hue to back it up and chocolate too because it’s the best kind of baking bonus.
Okay that last bit took a Dr. Seuss turn. Next post – no words longer than five letters because this big words thing is exhausting and I have way too many thesaurus.com tabs open right now.
Blueberry Magic Cookie Bars
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 6 bars 1x
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Description
Sweet blueberries give these magic cookie bars a pop of purple and extra fruit flavor, while banana keeps them easy, healthy, and refined sugar-free!
Ingredients
Scale
Crust (see notes for an oat option)
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 2–3 tbsp maple syrup
Blueberry Layer
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup blueberries ((fresh or frozen))
- 3/4 cup chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup blueberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Combine the almond flour and maple syrup in a bowl. Mix to create a sticky clumpy dough that holds together when pressed. Add 1 tbsp water if it seems too dry.
- Press the crust into an 8×5″ baking dish (or a loaf pan) lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes at 350F. Remove from the oven and cool for at least 15 minutes.
- While the crust is cooling, blend the bananas and 1/2 cup blueberries.
- Pour the purple puree on top of the cooled crust.
- Sprinkle on the chocolate chips, 1 cup blueberries, and coconut. Gently press down until the banana puree rises up covering everything.
- Bake for 40 minutes at 350F.
- Cool then chill overnight.
- The next day, slice and enjoy! Keep in the fridge for up to a week.
Notes
I much prefer this almond flour crust, but for an oat flour option see this recipe
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 bar
- Calories: 376
- Sugar: 21g
- Fat: 25
- Carbohydrates: 36g
- Fiber: 7g
- Protein: 9g
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