Ingredients
- Dry Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups organic oats (gluten-free, if needed)
- 1/2 cup organic hemp seeds
- 1/2 cup organic chia seeds
- 1/4 cup organic flaxseeds (freshly ground)
- 3/4 cups organic almonds (freshly ground in tiny pieces)
- Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup organic raw honey (or other liquid sweetener for vegan)
- 3/4 cups organic almond butter
- 1/2 cup organic coconut oil (melted/liquid)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon organic vanilla extract
Preparation
Step 1
put flaxseeds into a coffee grinder and grind into a powder. Set aside.
Put almonds into a food processor and process until they are in tiny pieces. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together (oats, hemp seeds, chia seeds, ground flax seeds, ground almonds and coconut, if used).
In a medium sized bowl, mix all wet ingredients together (raw honey or other liquid sweetener, almond butter, melted coconut oil and vanilla extract).
Take the wet ingredient mixture and combine in the large bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until well combined, using your hands if needed.
Put the mixture in an 8 x 8 glass baking dish and press the mixture firmly.
Put in the refrigerator or freezer to chill or until the mixture is firm.
Cut into even size bars or smaller sized squares.
Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve because they will get soft if left out at room temperature.
Tip #1: Add an extra 1/4 cup of melted coconut oil if you want yours to be more compact and dense (as in the photos) as opposed to a more granola type bar.
Tip #2: I couldn’t figure out a way to reduce the sweetener without them falling apart. When I mixed them up with only 1/2 cup of sweetener, it was just the right amount of sweetness – for me. But they wouldn’t hold together. So I added the other 1/2 cup of sweetener (and the extra 1/4 cup of coconut oil) and they held up fine but I found they were too sweet.
I’ve been pretty much sweetener-free for the last two months so these were ~way~ too sweet for me, but my family loved them.
Tip #3: The recipe makes 6 large granola size bars or 12 squares (shown in the photos) or 48 tiny squares (cutting the 12 squares into 4 pieces each). My husband, who can eat 5,000 calories a day and not gain one pound gets the large size, my boys who have no problems with extra calories and healthy fats gets the square size and I get the tiny bite size pieces. I usually take one of the squares and cut it into 4 tiny pieces and nibble on it throughout the day. One of my favorite afternoon treats is one of the tiny pieces with a cup of green tea.
Tip #4: They will freeze or refrigerate well – just keep them in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator or freezer until you are ready to eat them. They will melt and get soft if left out at room temperature.