Larabar Copycat

According to larabar.com, Larabar produces healthy, gluten free energy bars made from minimal, pure ingredients. The reviews are pretty much all positive. Everyone loves Larabar's taste and nutritional stats...however...the price is there people begin to hate the Larabar. They make such a great product but it comes with a price-namely, your left arm and right leg, and in some cases-your first born male child!


So I set out to create my own...

There are many people that have posted their recipe for a 'Larabar Copycat' on the internet...I did my research! I know that an original Larabar has two things: dates, and nuts. There are many variations on this of course... I did a few trial and error recipes before finding the best combination for a homemade Larabar:


Standard Recipe:
-1/2 cup dates
-1/2 cup salted peanuts (this cuts out the step of adding salt in the end)
-1 tsp. water

Directions:


1. Blend dates in a food processor until finely chopped.


2. Remove from processor to a medium sized bowl.


3. Blend nuts in a food processor until finely chopped.


4. Add dates back to processor and add water.


5. Blend all together until sticky


6. Dump sticky mess out onto counter and squeeze together into a ball. 

7. Separate into desired sized bars (for this recipe I got three nicely sized Larabars)


8. Wrap each individually in Seran-Wrap and refrigerate until ready to eat-or, freeze if keeping more than 2 weeks. (though, I'm not really sure how you could keep your hands off these bad-boys for more than 2 weeks!)

Nutritional Info (1/3 of recipe)

Now, don't get me wrong...these are amazing in their pure standard form but I wanted to experiment a bit farther to get a more peanutty taste :) ...I succeeded! However, when I got done I got a little excited and wanted to get a PB&J version and ended up with this:


Ingredients: 
-1/2 cup dates
-1/2 cup salted peanuts
-3 TBSP. Peanut Butter
-1/4 cup raisins
...if you only want peanut butter flavored and not PB&J simply omit the raisins!


Directions:
1. Follow steps 1-5 of standard recipe (DO NOT add the raisins!)
2. Add the raisins in after all the rest have mixed and blend in processor until raisins are just slightly chopped


3. Finish with steps 6-8 of standard recipe 
NOTE: This recipe makes 4 bars


Nutritional Info (1/4 of recipe)