Snickers Bars... All Natural!

This recipe has been a long time in coming. It's been a busy month here at Living Vibrantly! My apologies to those of you who have been looking out for it ever since I first posted about it. The good news is, I've had a chance to make it twice now and perfect the technique.

This recipe is part of my drive to find real-food replacements for the sweet treats I crave. One can argue about whether sweet treats have any place in a healthy diet, but I know for sure that eating something with raw nuts, coconut oil, honey, and maple syrup beats eating something highly processed that contains hydrogenated oils and high-fructose corn syrup. Foods as found in nature often have the very vitamins and minerals that aid our bodies in processing them... but when we eat their highly processed equivalents, these same substances are leached out of our bodies and our stores depleted.

Without further ado... here's the recipe! And yes, it's a favorite.

SNICKERS BARS... ALL NATURAL!

Yield: 3 dozen mini candy bars

2 c raw cashews

5/8 c maple syrup

1 1/4 c coconut oil, plus extra to grease pan

1 c raw almonds

6 large dates

1/2 c honey

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 c slivered almonds

1 c raw cacao powder

Sea salt

Grease an 8x8" baking pan with coconut oil. In the bowl of a food processor, grind the cashews into a fine crumble (like nut flour, but be careful not to process so long that you end up with cashew butter). Add 2 Tbsp coconut oil, 2 Tbsp maple syrup, and a pinch of sea salt to the food processor and blend to combine. Pat mixture into the bottom of the pan and freeze.

In the food processor, grind almonds into a fine powder. Add dates, honey, vanilla, 2 Tbsp melted coconut oil, and 1/4 tsp sea salt. Process until the mixture resembles caramel sauce, then spread over the frozen base layer. Press slivered almonds into the base layer and freeze for 1 hour. These are the "insides" of your Snickers bars. Once frozen, cut them into Snickers-size pieces. Remove from pan and set aside on wax paper.

In a small saucepan, melt 1 c coconut oil over low heat. (For some stoves, this may work better with a double boiler and indirect heat.) Stir in cacao powder and 1/2 c maple syrup. When mixture is fully melted and well combined, use a fork to dip the Snickers pieces one by one into the chocolate. Remove each one and place it back on the wax paper. After you've finished dipping them all once, go back and dip them again for a thicker chocolate layer. (This should work except in very hot weather, in which case you might need to return the bars to the freezer to let the first layer of chocolate set before re-dipping.) Allow the chocolate to set, then transfer wax paper sheets (with bars) into an airtight container and store in the freezer.