Fruit & Nut Bars

For an easy-to-prepare and quick snack on the go, make a batch of these raw bars made from purely dried fruit and nuts.  – Jump to Recipe

If you like LÄRABARs, this recipe is for you. I shared this simple bar recipe several years ago as I was trying to mix up my go-to snacks. With only 5 ingredients (plus water), this is one of those recipes that you may already have the ingredients for in your pantry. If not, it’s easy to sub different dried fruits or unsalted nuts/seeds. But for me, I’m a big fan of what you see below.

Dates, dried cranberries, raw almonds, unsalted peanuts, and unsweetened coconut—boom. This combo is pleasantly sweet and is a great pick-me-up when you need some energy. You could also roll these into little energy bites, but I find it easier to just smash them into bar form.

Another great quality of this recipe, similar to my Nut and Seed Granola Bars, is it’s a no-bake bar concoction. Which means you can just throw it all in a food processor, flatten it into a dish, refrigerate it for a few hours, and cut it to serve! I always forget how fast it is to make these, and then I wonder why I don’t make these more often. Oh right, because my Trail Mix Granola Bars have chocolate and chocolate always wins.

But anywho, these wannaba LÄRABARs are also delish and have less sugar, so they’ve got that going for them, which is nice.

Print Pin

Fruit & Nut Bars

Servings 8 bars

Ingredients

• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/2 cup raw almonds
• 1/2 cup peanuts unsalted
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1-3 Tbs water

Instructions

• Combine all the fruits and nuts in a food processor, blending until it becomes a fine consistency. Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time, processing after each addition. Only add as much as you need to get the mixture to stick together.
• Line an 8×8 baking dish with wax or parchment paper. Pour the mixture into the pan and pat until firmly packed and even across the top.
• Refrigerate for about 4 hours and then cut into 8 bars.

Depending on how much water you add (to help them stay in their bar form), these can get a bit sticky when left at room temperature. That’s why I prefer and would recommend to store these in the fridge. Hope you find them to be a tasty and healthy snack like we do!

The original version of this post was published January 26, 2015.