XXX raw bars
Did you end up here after Googling for XXX? Come on, be honest now. Ok, so maybe this is food porn, but what I was trying to say was “3x raw bars”, or “triple raw bars”, or “I made 3 different raw bars” – but those titles weren’t nearly as fun!
When I was deciding on what kinds of raw bars to make, images of those 3-flavored containers of ice cream came flashing into my mind. You know the ones, with one brown, one white and one pink stripe – chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. While I decided to stay with those three colors, my choice of flavors was a little different.
The flavors I ended up choosing were influenced by a great range of Swedish raw bars that I recently discovered. I like them a lot! However, they are only available here, so, well, I felt bad for you all and wanted you to be able to enjoy your own, slightly fancier, luxurious homemade versions!
Everyone likes candy, right? Sweets and chocolate and … There are only a few problems. One of course is all the refined sugar in them. And then there’s the bugs and gelatin. Oh, you didn’t know there were millions of little bugs in some of your candy? Whenever you see carmine, cochineal extract, natural red 4 or E120 in a list of ingredients – well, that means you’re eating powdered bug.
And if you thought that was bad, do you know what gelatin is? I think many Americans (or maybe it’s just me), think of Jell-O when they think of gelatin. We focus on the sticky, shaky, jiggly result, and not the source. But do you know where gelatin comes from? Gelatin is made by boiling skin, tendons, ligaments, and bones.
All these things can be easily avoided and you can help your sweet tooth bite into a healthier snack. And it doesn’t get any better than making something yourself. It also gives you a great reason to buy and try some amazing raspberry powder!
The three recipes here are all quite similar, but the small twists and turns provide you with three very different flavor sensations. Every bar has nuts – almonds, cashews and/or walnuts as the base, dates – for sweetness and to hold everything together, a little vanilla and a little salt. Each bar also has another natural sweetener: maple syrup, coconut blossom nectar, and caramel/agave syrup. Use what you like, what you can find, use something else like rice syrup or stevia, mix and match… the choice is yours.
The caramel agave I found by accident in a health food store, and I love it! The caramel and some raw cacao are the defining ingredients for one bar. The coconut nectar is joined by some shredded coconut and some raw licorice in the next. And, in maybe my berry berry favorite bar of the three, goji berries and raspberry powder are give the third bar it’s wonderful color and flavor.
And to top off the XXX raw bars, literally, I used some 80% dark chocolate (look out for any form of milk – the darker the chocolate, the better) on the first bar, chopped pieces of a 100% natural licorice candy (look out for gelatin) and some more goji berries on the last. These bars are delicious, healthy and will impress your friends and appease the sweet tooth of the family!
Ingredients
-
Berry berry good
- 1 cup (2.4 dl) - almonds
- ½ cup (1.2 dl) - natural cashews
- ¼ cup (.6 dl) - pitted dried dates or date paste
- 1½ Tbsps (22.5 ml) - maple syrup
- 3 Tbsps (45 ml) - goji berries
- 1 Tbsp (15 ml) - raspberry powder
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) - vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp (1.25 ml) - salt Chocolate caramel nuttiness
- ½ cup (1.2 dl) - almonds
- ½ cup (1.2 dl) - walnuts
- ¼ cup (.6 dl) - natural cashews
- ¼ cup (.6 dl) - dates
- 1½ Tbsps (22.5 ml) - caramel agave
- 1 Tbsp (15 ml) - raw cocoa powder
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) - vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp (1.25 ml) - salt Coconut licorice blondie
- 1¼ (3 dl) - cup natural cashews
- ¼ cup (.6 dl) - almonds
- ¼ cup (.6 dl) - dates
- ⅓ cup (.8 dl) - shredded coconut
- 1½ Tbsps (22.5 ml) - coconut (blossom)nectar
- 1 tsp (5 ml) - raw licorice powder or licorice syrup
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) - vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp (1.25 ml) - salt
Instructions
- The method is the same for all three types of bars. Start by adding the nuts that you are using to a food processor or blender. Ideally, you should soak almonds overnight and then rinse and let dry before using.
- Pulse the nuts until chopped up a bit, but not too much. You want small chunks of nuts, not nut butter.
- After that you can add the remaining ingredients and mix/blend more.
- The only work you’ll have to do is to stop and poke, scrape, re-distribute the ingredients in your blender – these mixes get thick and sticky! The mixture may also be a bit oily due to the heat, or if you over blend the nuts, but after storing them in the fridge they will get firmer.
- When you’re happy with the consistency, line a rectangular form with plastic wrap and press your raw mixture into the form, flattening it a bit. My bars are about ½ to ¾ inch high (ca 1.5 cm).
- Remove from fridge, lift out of form using the plastic film, cut into small squares or rectangles, and if you want, you can powder the tops of them with: raspberry powder/gojis, raw cacao powder/chocolate and shredded coconut/ licorice candy pieces.