Description
Healthy Trail Mix Bars – a delicious and healthy treat or after-workout snack! Made with simple, real-food ingredients! (Gluten-Free Friendly + Plant-Based)
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients:
- 1 1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats (use certified gluten-free if you want)
- 1/4 cup ground flax
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 8 pitted dates
- 2/3 cup cashews
- 2/3 cup almonds
- 1/2 cup craisins
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/4 – 1/2 dairy-free dark chocolate chips
Wet Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup real maple syrup
- 1/2 cup creamy almond butter
- 2 tablespoons Califia Plant Butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Melt: Add maple syrup, almond butter and Calfia Farms Plant Butter into a small saucepan. Bring to medium/medium-low heat. Stir occasionally (trying to break up the almond butter) and slowly melt together. Don’t let it get too hot.
- Combine: Meanwhile, add dates, cashews and almonds to a food processor. Pulse several times to break down the nuts a little. The consistency should be pretty rough, but try to break up all the whole nuts so they stick together better in the bar. Set aside.
- Combine: Combine oats, flax, cinnamon, salt and sesame seeds in a medium mixing bowl. Stir to combine.
- Combine: Add the date/nut mixture to the oat mixture. Stir to combine.
- Let Cool: Once the maple syrup mixture has melted together. Remove from heat and let cool bit.
- Combine: Pour maple syrup mixture into oat/nut mixture and stir to combine.
- Stir: Add in dairy-free chocolate chips and stir to combine.
- Parchment: Place a piece of parchment inside a 8×8 or 9×9 pan (cut the parchment so it overhangs on two opposite sides which will act like handles and allow you to pull the bars out of the pan easily).
- Press: Pour the mixture into the pan and press down firmly.
- Cover: Cover with foil and place in the fridge overnight.
- Cut: Remove by pulling up on the parchment paper. Cut into 12 larger bars or 24 smaller bars.
- Store: Store in the refrigerator for up to 7-10 days.
Notes
- Gluten-Free: Feel free to use gluten-free certified oats to make these gluten-free!
- Cashews: Feel free to use either salted or unsalted. If you like that salty/sweet combo then I would recommend using salty. But I wouldn’t recommend using both salty cashews and salty almonds – I would pick one or it might get too salty.
- Almonds: Feel free to use either salted or unsalted. If you like that salty/sweet combo then I would recommend using salty. But I wouldn’t recommend using both salty cashews and salty almonds – I would pick one or it might get too salty.
- Craisins: I like using these.
- Dairy-Free Dark Chocolate Chips: I used these.
- Creamy Almond Butter: Use a thicker almond butter (like this one). If you use a very thin, drippy almond butter the bars might not stick together quite as well.
- Melting the Almond Butter/Maple Syrup: Just a reminder to not let this get too hot – we are going for a slow, low heat melt. Once this is melted it is going to be mixed in with the remaining ingredients, including the chocolate chips, which will melt if this is too hot.
- Pressing Down: I use a 8×8 pan for the bars and then too a 7×7 pan and placed inside, on top of the bars and pressed down real hard, but your hands should work well too!
- Storage: Store in the refrigerator for up to 7-10 days. They can be left on the counter for a day or two, but they will last longer in the fridge.
- Nut Substitutions: Feel free to mix up the nuts you use instead of or in addition to the cashews and almonds; as long as you have approximately 1 1/3 cups of nuts you should be fine.