I am kind of obsessed with Larabars. But they are way too expensive. More than a dollar for one bar? No thanks. With the help of the bulk food section of my grocery store, I've set out to make my own Larabars. I Googled the proportions and off I went. It seems like in general you want 50% of your bars to be dates, with the other 50% comprising of whatever flavor you are striving for. 1 cup of "stuff" should make roughly 3 bars.
My first flavor I tried to duplicate was peanut butter and jelly, which are my all time favorite Larabars. My recipe (this made 5 bars, but if I made them a little thinner this easily could have been 6):
1 cup dates
1/2 cup peanuts
1/2 cup raisins (I wanted cherries, but they were sold out of dried cherries)
1 spoonful of creamy peanut butter
Pinch of kosher salt
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| The uncut product |
Using my food processor, I mixed the dates, raisins, peanut butter, and salt until it formed a sticky ball, which I then transferred to a piece of plastic wrap. I then chopped up the peanuts in the food processor, and added those to the plastic wrap. I folded the plastic wrap over and smushed everything together, then flattened it out. The result looked surprisingly like Larabars!
I then just cut up the mixture, individually wrapped them in plastic wrap and refrigerated them. They taste....like Larabars! These turned out fairly peanutty, so I think next time I might cut back on the amount of peanuts, but still pretty darn good.
I also bought some dried mango and papaya, so tropical bars are next!
