Date Bars

This homemade energy bar recipe is the perfect wholesome snack! It’s naturally sweet, featuring oats, chia seeds, and pecans.

Ingredients

• 15 Medjool dates (9 ounces)*
• 1 cup raw pecan halves
• 1/2 cup gluten free oats
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 200F.
• Remove the pits from the dates with your fingers (they come right out!). Place the dates in the food processor and process or pulse until they are mainly chopped and a rough texture forms. Then add the remaining ingredients and process for a minute or so until a crumbly dough forms.
• Line a baking sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Dump the dough into the center of the parchment paper and use a rolling pin to roll it into a rectangle that is 6” x 10.5”. Cut the dough into 14 bars that are 1.5” x 3”. (You don’t have to be as precise as we were, but we found it was easiest for cutting uniform bars!)
• Bake the bars for 30 minutes (this step helps to make the texture more dry and less sticky). Cool the bars to room temperature, then store refrigerated in a sealed container between sheets of wax paper. If you’d like to package them for on the go snacking, cut out 4” x 6” rectangles of wax paper, wrap them around the bars, and secure them with tape. Stays good for 1 month refrigerated (or more, but they may not last that long!). 

Notes

• it technically works in the blender! Hooray
• If you leave out nuts, say you’ve forgotten to buy them, use less dates or more oats: it gets real sticky and hard to fashion
• Possibly also don’t blend the dates first, for similar reasons
• Roll them out between two parchment sheets
• Use the bench scraper to cut them