Fahim’s already started calling these Laramie Bars, and once he starts something, he’s not inclined to let it go. He changes the names for everything, so I really should be used to this by now… :p

lemon coconut larabarsLarabars. I came across a post over on Chocolate and Zucchini about them a couple of weeks ago and thought they looked interesting, especially in light of Ramadan and seeing what I can make Fahim eat in the very little time he has to eat it. Larabars are a sort of energy bar with a date base and can be made quite easily at home. Happily, not only is there a recipe for the Larabars (yes, I’ve dropped the umlaut – I’m lazy) in the post, but there are also additional recipes and ingredient combination suggestions in the comments, so that’s well worth a good read through.

In fact, the version I’m taking for a spin today is from the comments section, posted by poppy on May 5, 2009 (to make it easier for you to find the original, should you want to).

I’ve converted the recipe to grams like I always do, and amended it for available ingredients.

Lemon Coconut Bars

Ingredients

  • 170 grams (1 cup) cashews
  • 227 grams (1 1/2 cups) pitted semi-soft dates
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • Zest of 1 lemon or lime
  • 15 grams (1 tablespoons) lemon or lime juice
  • 76 grams (1 cup) dried shredded coconut

Directions

  1. flouring the cake pan with nut powderChop nuts into small pieces. Use some of this nut powder to “flour” the bottom of a 9×9″ baking pan. It’ll prevent sticking.
  2. Add remaining ingredients and process until well mixed.
  3. Press into baking pan.
  4. Chill for at least a couple of hours until firm, then cut into squares or bars.

The larabars will keep for up to six days in the fridge, or several months in the freezer.

I substituted cashews for the almonds since cashews are so much cheaper and so easy to find here, while almonds are not. I omitted the vanilla bean since I don’t have that. I used regular table salt since that’s all I can get here. I used coconut that I shredded from a coconut (from my mother in law’s coconut plantation), then I put the shredded coconut into the oven and lightly toasted it. And since I hadn’t pitted quite enough dates, I added raisins to make up that missing 20 or 30 grams. You know, the usual. 🙂

Lemon Coconut LarabarsI used a 9×9″ silicon pan and cut them into bars, 6 wide and 3 down, so each bar was about 3″x1 1/2″, which is a great size for us. That results in 18 smaller bars.

This was quick and easy to make, and I especially like that there’s no added sugar. It’s extremely flexible. You can substitute a portion of the dates for other dried fruit, like raisins, apricots, cranberries, or whatever you have available. Nuts can be any kind you have on hand, or even sesame, pumpkin, or sunflower seeds. Use orange juice and zest instead of lemon or lime if you prefer, or skip altogether, but you’ll likely need to adjust the nuts down a bit.

Fahim thought it was a bit too limey (since I used key limes – that’s what was in the fridge), although I thought it was great. But since I want him to enjoy these as well, I reduced the above recipe to reflect the lower amount of lime or lemon juice we’ll use in the future.

Overall, we loved these and I think they’re great for a quick snack or for breaking fast. I’ll definitely make these again.:)

Tags: larabars,

3 Replies to “Lemon Coconut Larabars”

  1. YES! Yes yes yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes mmmmmmmm 🙂

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