Snack Bar Experiment

The other day I was talking online with a fellow lover of Nakd bars. I discovered them while in the early days of my sugar free challenge. If you've not come across them before, they are a snack bar made completely from raw, natural ingredients. They are more expensive than I would usually spend on such things though and I wondered if I could make a passable alternative.

Here's what I came up with if you fancy some experimentation:

I put about 70g dates, a small handful of sultanas, and a couple of handfuls of oats in a bowl with about 2 tbsp of apple juice and blended it up with my stick blender. When I try it again, I think I might use the food processor because the motor seemed pretty hot after I'd finished!

I stirred in more sultanas and a few chopped nuts. You can add whatever you like at this stage though. I also put in some cocoa powder, because chocolate is always good!

Then I kept adding more oats and ground almonds, stirring with a spoon until the paste was really stiff, then formed it into small bars on greaseproof paper.

I folded the paper around the bars and pushed down on the mixture, smoothing it outwards until it was well compacted. Then I popped them in the fridge for later enjoyment!

They taste pretty good, but I'm going to enjoy experimenting to see if I can improve them. Frankly, with ingredients like those, you can't go wrong!