Chocolate Apricot Paleo Energy Bar 7

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Chocolate Apricot Paleo Energy Bar

This Chocolate Apricot Energy Bar is an amazingly delicious and effective after-workout snack; follow the additional Dessert Bar Modifications to make this perfect as an after dinner treat!

Author: Urban Paleo Chef

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 5-10

Prep time:  1 hour

Total time:  1 hour

Ingredients

• 1 & ½ cups pitted dates, finely diced
• 1 cup dried apricots, finely diced
• ½ cup sliced raw unsalted almonds, sliced (soaked, if possible)
• ½ cup raw unsalted pecans, sliced (soaked, if possible)
• ½ cup shredded coconut
• ⅓ cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon sea salt

Instructions

1. Dump all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and shake it around a bit to start combining them.
2. Using your bare hands (please wash first...) thoroughly mix the ingredients, kneading it in the mixing bowl like you would knead bread.
3. Continue kneading it until you can roll it up in to a mostly uniform-looking ball, leaving no ingredients behind in the mixing bowl.
4. On an oiled cutting board, carefully press that chocolate ball out to a square-shape approximately 1 & ½ inches thick (about 4 centimeters thick), and as wide and tall as it needs to be to get that thickness.
5. Cut 1-inch (2-3 centimeters) thick bars, no more than 4 inches long (10 centimeters).

Notes

Desert Bar Modifications:
Alternate Ingredients:
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (instead of ⅓ cup)
½ teaspoon sea salt (just enough)
The Dessert Sauce:
Heat ½ cup coconut cream and 3-4 tablespoons of honey (add honey and taste for desired sweetness) for 5 minutes on medium-low
Pour heated coconut cream over bars
Let bars cool in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving

3.2.1275

This is an excellent recipe, which has been sitting in my queue to share with you all for a long time! I made these some time ago and wrote it up as a guest post on http://www.carlmason-liebenberg.com, and the original post is here if you’d like to see it. Actually, once you’ve had a chance to read through this post, I recommend loading up the previous version. It’s a lot more wordy, and I was using a completely different recipe writing style back then (amateur…), so it may be quite interesting to take a peak at what my writing looked like in the early days of UPC. Maybe you’ll decide you liked it better, and ask me to post like that again from time to time… who knows!

Chocolate Paleo Energy Bar; What you’ll need:

• 1 & ½ cups pitted dates, finely diced
• 1 cup dried apricots, finely diced
• ½ cup sliced raw unsalted almonds, sliced (soaked, if possible)
• ½ cup raw unsalted pecans, sliced (soaked, if possible)
• ½ cup shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon sea salt

Prep time: About 1 hour (15 minutes if you use a food processor)
Serves: 6-10

1. Dump all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and shake it around a bit to start combining them.
Note: When I have time, I buy the almonds and pecans whole so that I can soak them for a day. To save time (like I did in the above picture), you can use the pre-sliced versions.

2. Using your bare hands (please wash first…) thoroughly mix the ingredients, kneading it in the mixing bowl like you would knead bread.
This is challenging because you’re trying to mix the dried fruit with powdered chocolate and other dry ingredients. This tends to be quite gooey, and not easy to mix.

3. Continue kneading it until you can roll it up in to a mostly uniform-looking ball, leaving no ingredients behind in the mixing bowl.

4. On an oiled cutting board, carefully press that chocolate ball out to a square-shape approximately 1 & ½ inches thick (about 4 centimeters thick), and as wide and tall as it needs to be to get that thickness.
Mine was about 7 inches square (about 18 centimeters square).

5. Cut 1-inch (2-3 centimeters) thick bars, no more than 4 inches long (10 centimeters).

Serving:

This will definitely help you replenish lost salt after a workout (or during) – and it will make you thirsty. So when you eat this, make sure you have some water handy!

Desert Bar Modifications:

Use this instead of the same ingredients above:

• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder (instead of 1/3 cup)
  Note: More cocoa powder will give this more cocoa flavor – I like my cocoa dark and rich, so I use the full 1/3 cup. If you prefer more of the other flavors and ingredients; use the reduced amount suggested here.
• ½ teaspoon sea salt (just enough)

Add this:

• Heat ½ cup coconut cream (add honey as desired) for 5 minutes on medium-low
• Pour heated coconut cream over bars
• Let bars cool in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving

If you’re going to make this as a desert bar, please follow this recipe ahead of time and try it yourself. Know what you’re making, and be sure that this is the right recipe for your audience. It is for any party that I’m invited to, that’s for sure!

And finally, enjoy!