It seems like I learn something new with every recipe, including these almond-date bars from a recent Cooking Light issue. I thought these looked great – they’re full of luscious fruits and nuts that come together to make soft, crunchy bars.
These bars are so easy to throw together. I don’t have a food processor, but have an awesome KitchenAid blender and it met its match on these bars, mainly due to negligence on my part. Who would’ve thought dates have pits in them? My Mom always used the boxed kind and those didn’t have pits. Apparently when you buy the really good medjool dates from Central Market, they do….
I won’t go into the dramatic hard-pits-don’t-blend details, but after discovering my error, the revised fruit and nut mixture (sans pits) came together nicely. The bars were soft and sweet with a nice crunch from the rice cereal. Plus, I felt like I was eating healthy!
They remind me of the Date Nut Balls my Mom used to make every Christmas, but this version comes in at less than 150 tasty calories per bar. They’ll definitely stay in my keeper file!
- 1 C almonds
- 1 1/4 C pitted dates (about 15)
- 1 C dried apples
- 1/4 C flaked sweetened coconut
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
- 1 C crispy rice cereal
- Cooking Spray
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Place first 6 ingredients in the bowl of a food processor (or heavy-duty blender); process until finely chopped. Add cereal; pulse to combine. Spray the bottom of an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish with cooking spray and press the mixture into the bottom of the dish. Cut into 12 pieces.
Tips and Stuff:
The nutritional values are approximated because I added a touch more apple and rice cereal than the original recipe.
Note to self: always check fruit for pits....lesson learned.