My friend Linda brought a bag of these yummy granola bars to the herb plant pick up on Friday. What a blessing! With all the kids helping, and so much going on, it was great to have a healthy snack to give everyone. Here’s her recipe.
Recipe by Linda Lagos
Ingredients:
1 apple, cored and chopped
2 cups dates made into a paste*
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. orange zest
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 3/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup sunflower seeds, soaked 2 hours
2 cups almonds, soaked 4 hours
3 cups pecans, soaked 2 hours
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked 2 hours
3/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins, chopped
1/4 cup golden flaxseeds, ground
2 tbsp. sesame seeds
2 tbsp. hemp seeds (optional)
Directions:
In a high speed blender put chopped apple, maple syrup, orange zest, lemon juice, sea salt, cinnamon and vanilla extract, then put in dates. Blend until well blended but does not need to be smooth. Set aside.
Rinse and drain all the nuts. In a food processor break up sunflower seeds and pour them into a large mixing bowl. Then put in food processor the almonds and break up into small pieces. Do the same with pumpkin and pecans. Pour all these in the mixing bowl as you do each nut. Add ground flaxseeds, sesame seeds and hemp seeds. Put in date mixture into nut mix and mix well. Then put in chopped cranberries and mix well. You may want to use your hands to mix it.
I have an Excalibur dehydrator and I put the mixture on 3 trays with the teflex sheets. I spread it to the thickness I desire and dehydrate for 24 hours at 115 degrees, then turn down to 105 degrees for 12 more hours or until done.
*To make date paste you normally would put the amount of dates the recipe asks for, usually a minimum of 1 cup. With 1 cup dates to 1/4 cup water in a vita mix and on high speed it does not bother the machine. I have been doing this for the last 4 years that I have had my Vita Mix. I do soak my dates if they are not real soft and fresh. But with this granola bar recipe, you just use the apple and agave or maple syrup as the liquid to blend the dates.