Healthy Circus Animal Cookie Bars - High Protein & Easy

Super Healthy Circus Animal Cookie Bars made with protein powder and no extra sugar! Animal cookie protein bars are low fat, low calorie, low sugar and made in just one bowl.

I am not even joking here, I literally made this recipe 8 hours ago so I can post it on April 18 for National Animal Cracker Day. Yeah, its one of those made up food holidays, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do when you're a food blogger, right? Haha.

Anyway, this is to say - this recipe is SUPER quick and easy! Legit just throw all the ingredients in one bowl, mix in those circus animal crackers, and bake it into the most pretty high protein treat for the party!

Ingredients for Healthy Circus Animal Cookie Bars

These high protein healthy circus animal cookie bars are made with simple and clean ingredients - no extra sugar or butter needed.

• Original Circus Animal Cookies from Mothers
• Vanilla Protein Powder for healthy, sugar free pumpkin cookie
  I used Quest Nutrition Vanilla whey-casein since it works best for baking.
• Unflavored Protein Powder from Quest Nutrition
• Shortbread flavor Cashew Butter; from American Dream Nut Butter The Ring Leader Cashew Butter (Code HAYLSKITCHEN gives you a discount) is what I used
  Regular cashew butter should also work
• Cashew Butter Powder, also known as Powdered Cashew Butter from PB2 here. You can use peanut butter powder from PbFit or PB2 too.

• Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• Unsweetened Applesauce 
• Zero Calorie Brown Sugar - This is the Brown Monkfruit 1:1 Sugar Substitute from Lakanto, and keeps this recipe sugar free
• An Egg
• An Egg White
• Baking Soda

How to Make Circus Animal Cracker Bars with Protein Powder

These protein powder circus animal cracker bars are a really great one-bowl recipe, and comes together in under 30 minutes total!

Preheat:

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Grease:

Grease 8x4" loaf pan with oil spray.

Mix Dry Ingredients:

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, vanilla protein powder, unflavored protein powder, cashew butter powder and baking soda until well combined.

Use whey-casein protein powder since it works well with the ratio of ingredients here; Whey protein absorbs less moisture, so you would have to reduce the amount of applesauce in this case. (See Alernate Ingredients section below)

Add Wet Ingredients:

Add in applesauce, egg, egg white and cashew butter.
Use room temperature ingredients so they mix well.

Make the Batter:

Gently whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until a thick batter forms.
Don't over-mix the batter!

Make sure you gently fold the dry mix into the wet to combine them.
Taste the batter and see if you need some extra sweetener. I'd recommend using stevia powder to maintain the consistency of the batter and have low sugar cookie bars.

Bake to Perfection:

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 12 minutes (15 minutes fully cooked, not gooey) 

Remove bars from oven when the top of the center is cooked, but still soft; Bars will continue to cook when cooling.

Cool and Slice:

Let cool completely before cutting, or the bars will be too fudgy and fall apart.

To store Circus Animal Cookie Protein Bars

These protein circus animal cookie bars make for a great weekly meal prep snack or post-workout treat!

• Countertop: Fresh baked animal cookie protein bars keep on the counter top in an airtight container for 1 day
• Fridge: As a meal prep, place animal cracker cookie bars in airtight container in the fridge for 5-6 days.
• Freezer: For longer term, store the cookie bars in a freezer-safe zipper bag or airtight container 2-3 months.
  Thaw on the countertop before eating.

Alternate ingredients for Circus Animal Cracker Protein Bar

These circus animal cracker protein bars come out perfect with the ingredients and brands I recommend, but here's some alternatives to try:

• Whole Wheat Pastry Flour: All purpose flour or 1:1 Gluten Free Baking Flour, in the same amount by weight.
• Whey-casein Protein Powder: Use whey protein powder, but also reduce applesauce to ¼ cup.
• Whey Protein Powder: Use all whey-casein protein, but also increase applesauce to ½ cup. 
• Applesauce: Mashed Banana or Pumpkin Puree
• Zero Calorie Brown Sugar Alternative: Regular coconut sugar or brown sugar (this won't be sugar free though, and also higher in calories)
• Cashew Butter: Peanut Butter, Almond Butter, Tahini, or any nut or seed butter.
• Cashew Butter Powder: Peanut Butter Powder, Almond Butter Powder also works.
  Or, use ¼ cup real cashew/peanut/almond butter but also reduce applesauce to ¼ cup.

A Vegan Protein Animal Cookie Bar Recipe

This healthy animla cracker cookie bar recipe can easily be made Vegan with the right substitutions.

• You will need to either make your own, or find an alternative for the animal cookies since they are not Vegan
• Use plant based protein powder (I recommend KOS vanilla and KOS unflavored protein), but also add extra 2 tablespoon sweetener.
• Flax Egg instead of real egg, or Just Eggs substitute (Vegan egg substitute)
• Aquafaba instead of egg whites

More Healthy Cookie Bars to Try

• Healthy Halloween Cookie Bars
• Double Frosted Sugar Cookie Protein Bars
• Chickpea Cookie Dough Protein Bars