Homemade "Lara Bars"

When I found out I had Celiac Disease I also found Lara Bars at Costco. Expensive? Yes. So I went hunting on the internet and found the following recipe with awesome results. I also made cookie balls out of the mixture to see if my kids would eat them and they did. All you need are the ingredients and a food processor. The pictures are of what I did today:

4 simple ingredients I used: dried apples, raw almonds, dates, and cinnamon. I got the almonds, dates, and apples at Winco in the bulk section. The following recipe is my combination:

1/4 cup chopped dates (roughly chopped whole fresh dates)
1/4 cup dried diced apples
1/3 cup almonds
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

The above picture is of my diced apples.


Set out two pieces of plastic wrap for shaping and wrapping the bars. Do this first; you’ll have sticky fingers when you need it.

Place the dates and apples in a food processor. Pulse until processed to a paste. Transfer paste to a medium bowl (don’t clean processor). The picture below is what mine looked like. 

Add the nuts to the processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add the nuts, along with the cinnamon, to the bowl with the fruit paste. Use your fingers to knead the nuts into the paste.

Divide mixture in half. Place each half on each of one of the sheets of plastic wrap. Wrap the plastic around each bar and start squishing into a bar shape form, 3 and 1/2 inches long, 1 inch wide and 3/4-inch thick); press againstcountertop to flatten bottom side, flattening top side and ends with flat of hand. Tightly wrap the plastic around each bar and store in the refrigerator. Makes 2 bars. (Another thing I did is squish the mixture as I took it out of the bowl. When I looked at the mixture it looked so crumbly to me but it actually forms together when you work at it with your hands). 

Click on the link below for instructions. The instructions above are from this link:
http://enlightenedcooking.blogspot.com/2008/02/home-made-lara-bars-energy-bars-part-3.html