Homemade Lärabars

I am SO SO excited about today's guest post! Its from my friend Erica. She is a super mama in the kitchen. She sent me all these homemade Lärabar recipes she'd been working on recently. I immediately got what I needed to try them for my crew! What a great way to get a healthy, filling snack into your kids and yourself! These bars are strictly made with fruit and nuts and maybe some flavor from an extract. For me, these just scream trail food for my husband!  I'm giving you 5 flavors I think, but know she and I have been brainstorming and trying more too! Enjoy!

My family, particularly my husband, love granola bars.  While we can find some online, they are overpriced and often have unpronounceable ingredients.  I had started making my own awhile back, having found a favorite recipe that had applesauce vs. oil, and honey to sweeten.  But I was looking for ways to avoid the extra sugar, and then I discovered Lärabars.  I will admit, I have never eaten a real, store bought Lärabar.  I didn’t know about them while I was in the States, and I am not going to pay the hefty price to try one overseas!  So hopefully, for those who are Lärabar experts, these recipes taste somewhat close to the real thing! Regardless, my whole family loves them and I love the ingredient list and how easy they are to make!

The idea behind Lärabars is that it combines dry fruit with different nuts and a few extra goodies to create a bar.  All I use is my food processor and the dried fruit is enough to hold all the nut pieces together.  No added sweeteners!  The only thing to watch out for is that you don’t over process it as the nuts will begin to release their oils and you will end up with a greasy mess.  Still yummy and edible, but greasy.  You have to mix longer than 10 minutes though to have that start, so mix away.

So far we have tried 6 flavors, and I am eager to try more!  I will share them as I try them out!  There is a website that I got some ideas from, and some didn’t require much tweaking.  I have to double all these recipes, as my family of 7 can eat through them quickly.  But when you are rolling them out it is easier to work with if you split it in half.  I will usually freeze half of what I make to make them last longer.

Many of the recipes allow you to exchange the type of nuts and dried fruits, but these suggestions allow the flavors to mix better.  For example, you can easily use raisins when it calls for dates, but raisins have a much stronger flavor than dates, and will often overpower other flavors.  If you are making the blueberry muffin lärabars, using raisins would mask the dried blueberries!  

Homemade Lärabars

Coconut Mango 

1 cup nuts (I used half cashews and half almonds)

1/3 heaping cup dried coconut

1 cup dried mango

1 rounded tsp coconut oil

Put all ingredients in the food processor and mix.  

I generally let it run for a minute or so then check to see if it appears to be sticky and forming a ball.  If it appears wet, then you have mixed too long and the oils from the nuts are coming out.

Put all ingredients onto plastic wrap and roll out to the desired size, then refrigerate until cool.  When it is firm enough to be handled, take it out and cut into bars and wrap individually. These keep a few days at room temperature but longer in the fridge or frozen. 

A few tips:

* we keep ours pretty soft without large pieces of nuts, as my toddlers enjoy these, but if you wanted larger pieces of nuts and fruit, save just a few pieces aside until it was almost done, then throw those in the processor and pulse a few times.

*If you are having trouble getting them to stick together into a ball, add more dried fruit and keep processing

* you can get creative with the shape you make these.  I have seen some in the shape of cookies, and others shaped in round balls which would be fun for kids.

* we typically get 6-8 bars out of each recipe, but less if you like them extra thick

Blueberry Muffin 

1 cup blueberries

1 cup dates

1 cup cashews

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (you can scrap some vanilla off a vanilla bean)

1/2 tsp lemon juice (lemon extract or zest works nicely here)

Banana Bread 

1 cup almonds

1 cup dates (sometimes I have to add extra dates to help it stick better…)

1 cup dried bananas

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional, I just like cinnamon in my banana bread)

Oatmeal Raisin

1 cup oatmeal (pulse it in the food processor a few seconds before adding other ingredients)

1 cup raisins

1 cup nuts (I use a combination of sunflower seeds (1/2 cup) and 1/2 cup mixed almonds and peanuts (or you can do walnuts or cashews))

dash of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough 

(for when your sweet tooth is out of control)

1 cup cashews

1 cup dates

1 cup chocolate chips (I typically don’t do a full cup)

1/2 tsp vanilla (can put a dash more)

(Typically with this recipe I mix the cashews and dates first, then add the chocolate chips the last minute so they are still in pieces)

*Mango Coconut and Oatmeal Raisin are not real Lärabar flavors. 

*Try these additional flavors, these pie-inspired flavors, and some favorite holiday flavors. 

**Dates are available on Taobao and amazon.cn. This brand is in my local grocery store (like Walmart) but way pricier. They are not pitted but seeds come out super easily. Neither of us has tried using the local Chinese dates (jujubes). Other dried fruits and nuts are also on both websites if you are looking for ones other than what is carried in local stores. Kirkland brand is great for fruit and nuts and often on sale. 7D mangos are always good, as are Dole ones (but Dole has added sugar I think). I bought this coconut recently--its unsweetened.