When first looked at Nestle Toll House’s Simply Delicious Snack Bar Dough and saw it’s made with a “5-Grain and Seed Blend,” my first thought was, “So, um, Nestle is making bird treats now?”
But after scanning the packaging like a hawk, I learned the snack bar dough is not for birds.
The instructions for them are as simple as they are for the brand’s cookies — preheat oven, break up the dough, place on baking sheet, put in oven, wait several minutes, enjoy the aroma of baked goods radiating from your oven, pull out sheet after time is up, lift oven door with foot, close oven door shut by hip-checking it, let the goods cool a little, and then enjoy. But unlike the cookies, the bars look the same going into the oven as they do coming out of the oven.
There are two varieties available Chocolate Chip with Toasted Oats and Cranberry Walnut with Dark Chocolate.
Chocolate Chip with Toasted Oats
If you like chocolate, this is the one you should get. Yes, the other one has dark chocolate, but with this one, the semi-sweet morsels stand out in every bite. To be honest, this tastes and feels exactly like a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie. The 5-Grain & Seed Blend (which by the way is made up of barley, wheat, brown flax seed, quinoa seed, and sunflower seeds) doesn’t seem to enhance or diminish the bars’ flavor.
The instructions say to let them cool completely before consuming, but the smell of chocolate chips in the air is an aroma that tests my patience. Because I have don’t have strong willpower, I tried one after about 5 minutes of cooling down. The underside of the bar has a slight crispiness, and so do the rolled oats on top.
But the bar in this warmed up state is super soft. So much so that I wondered if they were fully baked. I’m sure they were, but the bar’s thickness and seeing the “Do not eat raw snack bar dough” gets me a little paranoid. Letting them cool down completely made them chewier, so I guess I should learn patience. I also noticed eating them made my mouth dry. Maybe the oats are soaking up my saliva?
But, again, they taste and feel like chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. So if you’re a fan of those, you’ll like these, but might I recommend eating them with milk.
Purchased Price: $5.99
Size: 14 oz. package (makes 10 bars)
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 bar) 170 calories, 7 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 120 milligrams of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 9 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.
Cranberry Walnut with Dark Chocolate
If you like chopped walnuts on your floor, then this is the one you should get. Unlike the oats with the other variety, the nuts fell off the bars anytime I moved them. To make the photos in this review look less balding, I had to transplant a lot of walnut bits back onto the bars.
When I opened the oven door to pull them out, a sweet cinnamon aroma came wafting out. Oddly, the spice is not an ingredient. Much like the other variety, they do taste cookie-like, but it’s also less exciting because no flavors stand out.
The walnuts, if they don’t fall off, give a nutty flavor that’s hard to detect most of the time and a nice crunch. The sweetened dried cranberries are bland. As for the dark chocolate morsels, I don’t taste chocolate in every bite as I do with the other variety. But when I do taste them, they don’t have enough of a punch to satisfy my sweet tooth.
But, this one didn’t make my mouth dry. So that’s a plus. But if you care more about flavor than oral dryness, go with the Chocolate Chip with Toasted Oats one instead.
Purchased Price: $5.99
Size: 14 oz. package (makes 10 bars)
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 bar) 170 calories, 8 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 115 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 9 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.
