Life

*May contain nuts

I’ll tell you what I like; Nak’d Bars. I think in North America you have something similar called a Larabar. Either way they’re yummy.

Basically it’s a raw snack bar with a base ingredient of dates. That sounds awfully earnest and hessian but they’re actually very lovely. Obviously they don’t hit all the buttons that Cadbury’s Dairy Milk does but it’s still a tasty and guilt-free treat! (I’ll have two).

They’re not terribly cheap, so as they only have a handful of ingredients I trawled the internet for a recipe and I made some myself. Get me!

nuts

As well as the items below you will need a very robust food mixer. Seriously, it needs to be the Steven Seagal of food mixers (and don’t even think about trying this by hand, you’ll go bananas).

Ingredients (makes about 16):

  • 500g soft pitted dates
  • 140g whole almonds
  • 70g cashews
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1½ teaspoons lemon oil extract

Instructions:

Plonk everything into a food processor and mix. This will take quite a while so give your mixer a breather every 30 seconds or so to make sure you don’t start a house fire. It will look like nothing’s changing for ages (see below) but it will get there eventually – promise!

it will look like this for ages

it will start getting chopped eventually

it should end up like this

Take your nutty mixture and press into an 8 inch brownie tin lined with baking parchment. No cooking required, simply cover and pop in the fridge for 3-4 hours.

sliced

Once cooled and firm you can chop them into bars, wrap in some more baking parchment (I used the stuff I’d lined the baking tins with) and you’re done!

all wrapped up

I keep them in the fridge – they’ll probably last a couple of weeks (I’ve normally eaten them before then though).

Bon Appétit!

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7 Comments

  • Reply
    Cass
    21 November 2012 at 09:54

    GENIUS! I will have to give this a go. Just one question though: are you sure you don’t need to add a dollop of honey. Or golden syrup. Or treakle. Or chocolate chips. Or all four? Oh all right then… I suppose if it’s going to be guilt-free… Pfft.

    • Reply
      Angie
      22 November 2012 at 14:17

      You could dip them in chocolate but then you wouldn’t be able to at six at a time! :)

      • Reply
        Cass
        22 November 2012 at 16:36

        Is that a challenge? Because, if so, i’ll take it? :)

  • Reply
    Suzie
    21 November 2012 at 10:47

    Looks delicious but I think that you’ve missed off the last stage of the recipe. You know, the bit where you’re supposed to dip them in chocolate … dark chocolate obviously for the antioxidants …

    • Reply
      Angie
      22 November 2012 at 14:18

      OK, girls – I’m spotting a trend here…

  • Reply
    Rhianne
    3 December 2012 at 10:16

    Ohhh, how do they taste? I love Nak’d bars too but they are pricey. I think I’ll have to try making these too :)

    • Reply
      Angie
      7 December 2012 at 00:11

      They cost £1.35 each at work – I think they WANT us to eat chocolate!

    Leave a Reply to Angie Cancel Reply