Nut and Fruit bars

This is proving to be one of my most popular snack bars. It is a bar made from toasted nuts and some dried fruits, in this case raisins and the picture shows a bowl of goji berries. These are rich in antioxidants and slightly chewy, very nice.

The mixture of coconut oil, almond butter and honey makes for a lovely soft caramel flavour. The only cooking is toasting the nuts so very easy. The bars store well in the freezer too and need minimal time to thaw enough to eat, just minutes!

Because coconut oil is a liquid in a warm room, I find it is good to store the bars in the fridge or cool place if taking to work as a mid afternoon snack. Enjoy…

Ingredients for Nut and fruit bars

Mixing in the dried fruit- goji berries and raisins along with the ground almonds and dried coconut

Roasting the pecans, almonds and walnuts

Once the nuts have cooled they can be chopped down a bit in the food processor so some are still chunky

Putting the coconut oil on the heat to melt

Coconut oil has melted

Adding the honey, vanilla and almond butter to the coconut oil

Mixing the chopped nuts into the other dry ingredients

Mixing all the ingredients together- wet and dry

Spooning the mixture into the lined tray and pressing it down well. Then place in the freezer to set for about 30 minutes or longer.

After about 30 minutes in the freezer to set, they are ready- time to tuck in!

Once cut up the bars store well in the glass storage box in the freezer

Ingredients – this does make a large tray of 24 cm x 40 cm, about 40 small snack size bars. So by all means halve the amounts as you prefer.

• 2 cups walnuts
• 2 cups pecan nuts
• 1 cup almonds
• 1 cup ground almonds / almond meal
• 1 cup dessicated or shredded coconut
• 1 cup coconut oil – I use virgin organic coconut oil
• 1 cup almond butter – this is often in the Organic section of the supermarket
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or essence
• 1 cup of dried fruit- I used goji berries and raisins but you can also use dried cranberries or dried blueberries
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Method

1. Preheat the over to 160C and line a baking tray with baking paper. I use a 24 cm by 40 cm tray.
2. Place all the nuts on the baking tray and roast for 5 minutes until golden, put aside to cool. ( If using activated nuts your can omit this step).
3. Transfer nuts to food processor and pulse 4-5 times until coarsely ground.
4. Place nuts in a large bowl, then add in to a bowl with the ground almonds, dessicated coconut and dried fruit.
5. Melt the coconut oil in a small pan. Add the almond butter, honey, vanilla and sea salt and mix well.
6. Pour the coconut oil and honey mixture over the nut dry mixture and mix until combined.
7. Spoon this into a lined baking tray and smooth out using a palette knife.
8. Place in the fridge for 1 -2  hours or in the freezer for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
9. Once set you can cut into slices or bars and store in an air tight glass storage dish in the freezer.
10. The bars only take a few minutes to thaw enough to eat. On the day of eating, they are best stored in the fridge or cool so the coconut oil does not soften too much.