Fig and Cranberry Lärabars

Fig and Cranberry Lärabars

I make my own energy bars for race training. I started off just doing granola bars but lately I have gotten a bit lazy and are making Lärabars now. My husband pushed me to make them a bit since they are raw and vegan. I quite like them actually and they only take around 5 minutes to make if you have a food processor. That's right! There is no baking necessary, unless of course you want to roast the nuts beforehand :)

I started out making Lärabars as a bit of an experiment and I didn't write anything down. Yeah, I tend to do that a lot. Lol. I looked at a few sites online and realized that the bars were basically nuts, soaked dry fruit, and a bit of flavoring and fat. I was impressed at how fast and easy they were to make. The first batch I made were mainly figs, cranberries, and walnuts. Everybody here loved them! They were slightly on the wet side though. The second batch I made were coconut, pineapple, and walnuts. My 3 1/2 year old didn't like them much because of the coconut. He has a bit of a thing against coconut treats. What the heck, right?! Maybe it's just a phase for him. The bars were a bit on the greasy side though.

Coconut and Pineapple Lärabars

For my third batch of Lärabars, I went back to my first attempt and changed it a bit. The nice thing about experiments is that you always learn something from them :) This time I added black chia seeds. If you haven't already heard, chia seeds are super nutritious and healthy for you. My husband insisted I add some to the bars. He has actually been grinding chia seeds up to a dust and adding them to his energy drinks for biking! Apparently, they are commonly used in energy foods because they contain healthy fats and protein and a load of other great stuff, which all help to increase energy and endurance for athletes. Sounds good to me!

Are you training for a long race? If you want a healthy bar and save yourself money at the same time (because I hear these are expensive!), you may want to try making these Lärabars. If you do, I would love to hear what you think of them in the comments below :)

Fig and Cranberry Lärabars
Makes about 1 3/4 lbs of Lärabars

1 cup walnuts
1 1/2 cup almonds (I used 1 cup lightly roasted almonds, 1/2 cup natural almonds)
3 tbsp organic black chia seeds
1/2 to 3/4 cups dried figs
1 cup dried cranberries
2 tbsp almond butter
1 cup of hot water (mainly for soaking fruit)

Soak dry fruit in 1 cup of hot water. The figs I used were somewhat moist already so I was basically only soaking the cranberries. If your figs are very dry, you could use more hot water.

With a food processor, process the nuts first. Add the chia seeds and almond butter next. Add the soaked fruit, only the fruit but reserve the liquid. Process some more. Depending on how wet or dry the result is, you may want to add about 1 tbsp of the reserve fruit liquid.

Line a brownie pan with aluminum foil and spread the processed mix inside. It will be sticky but press and compact everything as flat and neat as possible. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before cutting into bars.