"Raw" Coconutty "Snickers" Traybakes

Oh dear me. I don’t really know how I found myself down this rabbit hole of blitzing dates in a food processor on the instruction of a recipe for which “blended dates” is a synonym for “caramel”.

Anyway. I had a brief foray into the world of clean treats when I made sweet potato brownies. And then I forgot all about it. And then I started this “healthier” eating kick, and of course my first step was to bookmark a million recipes.

The whole raw food concept is interesting to me. It’s an odd phenomenon, people who can’t or choose not to eat processed, pre-packed food like chocolate bars, but who try to recreate the taste in a more wholesome way. Of course, this still has sugar and calories and is still very much a “treat,” but doesn’t have lots of additives and un-natural-ness.

I’m not going to lie. I’m sceptical about it. Sometimes I think the people who make these things haven’t had a bar of proper chocolate in so long that they kind of forget what it tastes like. Make no mistake, a snickers bar is an incredible and delicious thing (and don’t even get me started on the hazelnut version!). And this version, while definitely not a snickers, has its own sweet, nutty, chewey, crunchy appeal.  I think these raw treats are let down by comparisons, and we should just let them be their own weird little nutty-fruity thing.

One thing that I’ve noticed with all the raw recipes is that you won’t really get away without a food processor. I couldn’t get through 48 hours without mine, but if you don’t have one, you really should consider it. I even have two – a regular sized one and a little tiny one, for chopping tiny things!

Fills a standard square brownie pan – I got about 25 squares from this

Ingredients for the base

• 125g porridge oats
• 50g ground almonds
• 25g peanuts
• 25g cashews
• 25g desiccated coconut
• 60ml maple syrup
• 2 tbsp coconut oil (extra for greasing)
• 1-2 tbsp water

Ingredients for the peanut middle

• 300g pitted dates
• 110g peanut & coconut butter
• 1 tbsp honey
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla*
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 2-4 tbsp water
• 50g peanuts

Ingredients for the chocolate topping

• 100g coconut oil
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp honey
• Pinch salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 75g cocoa powder
• A few tsp of desiccated coconut for sprinkling

Method

Get the food processor out, because it is going to get some real use up in here.

Measure out the oats, and blitz in the food processor until a fine, flour-like texture is formed. Throw in the nuts and blitz together until no big pieces are left and you have a fine mixture again. Throw in the maple syrup, coconut oil and water and blitz until it all starts clumping together.

Press into a tin greased with coconut oil and place in the freezer.

Now, place the dates in the food processor and pulse for a few seconds. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the water and peanuts and blitz until combined and beginning to become smooth.

Trickle in the water until you get a lovely rich, spreadable consistency. I refuse to insult caramel by comparing the two, but you get the idea. Throw in the peanuts and pulse a few times to mix them together and break them up slightly.

Date-y, smooth and sweet.

Get the base out of the freezer and spread the date mixture on top evenly.

Stick back in the freezer.

Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan along with the maple syrup, honey, salt and vanilla.

Measure the cocoa powder in a bowl and pour over the melted coconut mixture. Stir until glossy and smooth and combined.

Take out of the freezer, pour over the “chocolate,” sprinkle with desiccated coconut and return to the freezer for at least an hour.

Pre-freezer

Post-freezer

Cut up into slices, and store in the fridge for midnight feasts.

*I used a teeny bit of vanilla sugar for this, because I don’t really use vanilla essence. Don’t tell anyone!