When I'm traveling I will always pick up a few in place of a candy or chip snack. But at an average of $1.50 a bar, if you eat one every day (as I happily will) that $45 a month. So I set out to make my own.
I will still purchase them, as there are some of their yummy flavors I probably could not duplicate and I love their little individual wrapped mini bars for my purse. But the lemon and key lime ones, are easy to do (simply sub key lime for lemon in this recipe.)
Texture and taste was spot on. Even better - they were 1/3 of the cost! No baking, and just a few cooking implements to wash up. Here's a picture of a Larabar from the web (this is the Alt Lemon Pound Cake flavor)
DIY "Larabar Style" Lemon Bar (note - my first batch were a little thin for my taste so I increased each of the ingredients by 50% and got just the right thickness of bar - recipe below is the adjusted one).
In a food processor pulse:
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons salted cashews
3/4 cup plain almonds
until you have big crumbly bits.
Add:
1 8 ounce package pitted dates
3 Tablespoons plus 1 and 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
some grated lemon zest (a generous half teaspoon)
a drop of Vanilla extract.
Pulse until you have a thick crunchy dough. You will have to stop and redistribute the mixture with a wooden spoon 3 or 4 times as it's pretty thick and will bunch up on one side of the food processor making the blade ineffective.
Pat down into a 8 x 8 pan sprayed with non stick spray. Refrigerate a couple of hours, then cut into squares. I simply cut into squares, lifted them out with a spatula and then just smoothed the tops with a rolling pin (as I got lazy patting them out in the pan.)
Store in a Tupperware using wax paper to separate the layers of stacked bars or in individual snack plastic zip bags.
I may have to make these:)
ReplyDeleteI updated the recipe slightly for my second batch right about the time you commented as the first batch was pretty thin. I simply increased each ingredient by 50% (just a little math) They came out just the right thickness. They taste great, I think they are even slightly moister than the Larabar and totally gluten free and vegan.
ReplyDeleteLooks delicious! I bet you could freeze them too!
ReplyDeleteYour Pals,
Murphy & Stanley