Sunday, December 14, 2008

Date Bars

There are many jokes to be made out of the phrase "date bars."

Ex1:
"I'm going home to make date bars tonight."
"You're going to what?
and
Ex2:
"I'm going home to make date bars tonight."
"You've been doing that a lot lately. It must be working out well for you."
and
Ex3:
"I'm going home to make date bars tonight."
"What? You're going to bars to find dates and make out?"

Those are just a few examples. I am sure you can only imagine the other possibilities. However, "I'm going home to make date bars" has fallen from my lips several times this last week, and today I succeeded. I love Larabars - an energy-type delicious bar wrapped in clever packaging - and every Larabar usually only has 2-5 ingredients. I decided I wanted to try my hand at making them when it became impossible for me to eat less than one a day.

So off I went to Wal-Mart to find dates, almonds, and coconut. Mmmm, coconut. Then, the experiments began. My friend Bethany suggested I boil the dates so as to make them a stickier binding agent. Then I chopped up the almonds and coconut in a food processor. I combined the boiled dates with the dry ingredients (including a dash of cinnamon) and food-processed it more.

I then tried several different baking methods at varying temperatures and times. I finally settled on the following method:

Grease cookie tray
Roll mixture into little balls
Place on try
Press flat with bottom of cup (to 1/2 inch thick or so)
Bake at 315 for 30 minutes
Eat

I am so excited that I unlocked the secret to my own Larabar version. In fact, I believe the Larabar company must dehydrate or otherwise slowly cook the bars because they do not have the baked texture, making my little cakes totally original.

I shall call them:

Noellabars

Ingredients: Dates, Almonds, Coconut, Cinammon, Elbow Grease, Ingenuity, Love

200 Calories of
non-gluten, anti-processed sugar, dairy-free, potato-free, corn/corn-syrup/other-corn-derivatives-free, legume-free
BLISS

5 comments:

Heather In Progress said...

Sounds great! Seems like a wonderful to-go breakfast or snack. Do you think boiling and food processor-ing raisins would work about the same? I'm not a big fan of dates... (The fruit, that is.)

Kid Christmas said...

Boiling raisins would probably be similar...also if you like figs or prunes, although the latter may be a bit of a laxative. :)

Lee said...

So... are you going to be bringing some of these delectable creations to team on Thursday?

Katie said...

I have to leave my first comment ever on your blog to say this: I feel like we are living the same life sometimes, Noelle... :o) I just recently discovered Larabars when they were on sale, and wow... I knew I needed to figure out a home technique as they are a bit more pricey than I'd like. Thus, Joey and I are embarking on our own Larabar adventure! Interestingly, as we are hunting down a food processor to borrow, I decided just to stop in and see how you are doing via the blog... I had to laugh. What a delight to recall how we share similar passions, thoughts, and taste! I think we are going to try and make our mock the "Apple Pie" version! mm!

Hope you are well, dear friend.

Katie said...

P.S. That's Katie, in case the "Katherine" threw you off! :o)