Ok, well I’ve been out of the kitchen for awhile… busy, busy… but, I’m finally catching up on important stuff — my blog! Another recipe from everydayraw by Matthew Kenney. I seem to have acquired a new habit of buying a cookbook and then trying almost every recipe in the book. I’m sure Matthew would not like me to publish all his recipes on the world wide web! And I won’t — even though there are many many yummy recipes inside his book!
This recipe he calls: Super Goji-Cacao-Maco Bars with Sweet Sauce and it could easily be named Super Goji-Cacao-Maca-Hemp-Flax Bars with Sweet Sauce… ’cause all that good stuff is in the bar! Yow! As I had never used goji berries, cacao nibs or maca in any recipe before, this was an exotic adventure into super foods for me.
The recipe is pretty straightforward and the bars were good at first tasting but even more SUPER DUPER after I stumbled upon a little addition. Just to be on the safe side I made only half the recipe. I don’t know about you, but I have messed up a recipe or two in my time and the 8 cups of almonds that goes into the full recipe was a little bit more than I could spare. Below is the full recipe as it appears in everydayraw.
One curious thing that I have come across before using this cookbook is the instruction to drain the flax after it has been soaked. This completely befuddles me… after you soak flax, it is one big gelantinous gob of flaxxy goo. What do you drain? In all honesty, I admit to you that the last time this instruction came up in a recipe — I actually tried to drain the flax. Why you may ask? Somehow I just needed to prove to myself that I wasn’t doing something wrong. Do you know what came out of the strainer? Absolutely nothing! A few bits of globby flax goo poked through the little holes in the strainer but didn’t make it all the way through. If someone has a different experience with soaking flax please let me know. Right now, I’m clueless why one would need to strain the stuff.
Anyway, back to the SUPER DUPER bars and what warrants the DUPER… When it came time to apply the Sweet Cacao Sauce I tried to make my bars look exactly like the luscious photo in everydayraw by glazing the sauce in thin parallel lines across the top. This is quite aesthetically pleasing, but as I discovered later… more sauce is even better. Remember, I made only half of the entire recipe that included half of the almond crumbs and half of the Sweet Cacao Sauce but even after delicately squeezing out every fine line of sauce… I still had well over half a batch leftover. What to do, what to do with all the leftover sauce? Well after eating a bar or two, I thought these are good but they need a little something… and that something was… drum roll please — MORE SUPER DUPER SAUCE! Squeezing on or should I say lathering on more Sweet Cacao Sauce really added to the flavor of the entire bar for me. What doesn’t taste better with a little more fat and sugar. Try them for yourself and see! How much sauce will it take to sweeten you up?
SUPER GOJI-CACAO-MACA BARS
Yield 32 bars
4 3/4 cups almond crumbs (see below)
3 cups cashew pieces
1 cup hemp
1/2 golden flax seeds, soaked 2 hours and drained
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest, finely chopped
1 3/4 cups agave
1/4 cup maca
1/2 cup cacao nibs
1 cup goji berries, soaked no more than 15 minutes and drained
1 recipe Sweet Cacao Sauce (see below)
Mix all ingredients in large bowl until incorporated. Spread evenly on a parchment-lined half sheet pan and press firmly. Dehydrate overnight. Loosen all sides of pan and turn out onto cutting board. Trim edges and cut into bars. Glaze bars with Sweet Cacao Sauce. Return to dehydrator screens and dehydrate overnight.
Almond Crumbs
Yield 3 1/2 cups
Place 8 cups almonds* (unsoaked) in a food processor and blend until ground but still slightly coarse.
* For this recipe use about one cup more if you are making the entire recipe
Sweet Cacao Sauce
Yield 2 cups
1 1/2 cups cacao nibs
1 1/4 cups agave
1/2 cup coconut oil
Blend ingredients in Vita-Mix until completely smooth. Pour into squeeze bottle and store in refrigerator. Before using, place the bottle near dehydrator or let it sit in a warm area.
Printable Recipe
