Homemade Larabars/Paleo Fruit & Nut Bars

I am very much a novice where Paleo is concerned, so I'm just trusting someone else's word here on this recipe. I heard about a similar recipe from a cousin whose daughter and son in law are experts in the field, so I decided to see what I could find online so I would have a recipe to work from. What I found was this site with  three different recipes and I used her recipes as my base.

Everyday Paleo Fruit & Nut Bar

Here are my recipes, I made two batches with very little variations.

RECIPE #1

1 cup roasted almonds with sea salt

( I added no extra sea salt since the almonds were already salted, if yours are plain, add 1/4 tsp sea salt)

1/2 cup pecans

 12 unsweetened dates

 1 cup dried, unsweetened apricots

 5 drops Cinnamon Bark 100 % Pure Essential Oil

In food processor, pulse almonds and pecans until partially fine, there will still be some good sized chunks, which is good.

 

Transfer ground nuts to mixing bowl and then pulse the dates and apricots in processor until it's a sticky mess, add the essential oil and pulse again to mix.

 

Add this sticky mess to the ground nuts and mix and shape into a ball. I dampened my hands to mix, it is very sticky. 

Place ball of mixture in greased pan of some sort, size depends on how thick or thin you want the bars. I sprayed my glass baking dish with a mixture of olive oil and water(homemade non-stick spray).

 

Press with your damp hands into the dish, you can grease a small glass if you'd rather roll the mixture, I had better results just pressing with my hands.

 

Cut in pieces, remove with a spatula and place in container, seal and keep in refrigerator for best results.

RECIPE #2

1 cup roasted almonds with sea salt 

( I added no extra sea salt since the almonds were already salted, if yours are plain, add 1/4 tsp sea salt)

1/2 cup walnuts

 1/2 cup chopped pecans

 12 unsweetened dates

 1 cup dried, unsweetened apricots

 5 drops Cinnamon Bark 100 % Pure Essential Oil

 2 drops Clove 100% Pure Essential Oil

 

The process is the same with one variation. My pecans were already pieces so I just added them to the mixture, in order to have more chunks in the bars. If using pecan halves, chop them coarse.

These bars are sticky, at least mine are, but still very good and very healthy feeling. This was my first attempt with them and overall I am satisfied with the results.  Coconut is not a good thing for me, but I can see where some organic, unsweetened coconut would be a wonderful addition to these. If you're not trying to avoid sugars, you could add regular coconut.

I was just told that you can also just dump all the ingredients in the food processor together and grind and mix at the same time. I've not tried it, but I know the person who did and she said it worked fine. I'll try it that way next time.

patti