Make Your Own Bars

Make your own bars with ingredients found at your local grocery store.
If you’re like us and you’ve tried a lot of bars, it’s only natural that at some point you’ll want to give it a try on your own.  Of course, there are lots of different types of bars out there (and ingredients that are hard to find) so we took to the kitchen to determine what type of bar would be easiest to make and produce the best flavor and energy/nutritional boost.

We’ll spare you the stories of the many batches of bars that we tossed while playing with ingredients (orange zest and peanut butter don’t go together — who knew   What we ended up with is a bar that’s soft, but has crunch, and is loaded with raw ingredients to help maximize flavor and nutrition (aka “good” fat, fiber, and protein).

These bars will fill you up and work great for meal replacement, a quick pick me up before/after a workout, or as a wholesome snack.

BARSAREFOOD.COM “MOSTLY RAW” BARS:

INGREDIENTS
1 cup dried dates
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cherries (no sugar added)
1 cup unsweetened dried coconut
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup raw almond slices
1 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup raw pecans
1/4 cup oat bran
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup safflower oil
1/2 tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Place the dried coconut on a foil lined baking sheet.  Toast until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes.  Watch closely as the coconut can go from golden to burned very quickly.

Place the dried dates, raisins, cherries in a food processor with the lower rotary blade.  Process until a firm ball forms, about 1 minute.  Add the toasted coconut, sunflower seeds, almond slices, cashews, pecans, oat bran, and ground flax.  Pulse about 10 times to roughly chop the ingredients.  Do not over mix or the bars will not have crunch.

Transfer mixture to a stand mixer (or large bowl to hand mix).  Add the brown rice syrup, safflower oil, and salt.  Mix on low speed for about 3 minutes, or until small balls start to form.

To form the bars, spray a 9×12 baking dish or quarter sheet pan with cooking spray.  Dump the mixture into the pan and press it down evenly and firmly (you can use a meat tenderizer for some extra help).  Place pan in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Slice and serve after removing from the freezer.  Bars will stay fresh for several days, especially if refrigerated.

Comments?  We’d love to hear them!