• Menu
  • Skip to left header navigation
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Eat Sleep Wild

  • Guides
  • Recipes
    • Breakfasts
    • Main Dishes
    • Desserts
    • Hiking Snacks
    • Dehydrated Camping Food
    • Campfire Recipes
    • Wild Food Recipes
  • Trip Reports
    • Dartmoor
    • Brecon Beacons
    • Snowdonia
    • Wales
    • Scotland
    • Cotswolds
    • Abroad
  • Reviews
  • Shop
    • Trail Meals
    • Basecamp Essentials
  • Events
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Guides
  • Recipes
    • Breakfasts
    • Main Dishes
    • Desserts
    • Hiking Snacks
    • Dehydrated Camping Food
    • Campfire Recipes
    • Wild Food Recipes
  • Trip Reports
    • Dartmoor
    • Brecon Beacons
    • Snowdonia
    • Wales
    • Scotland
    • Cotswolds
    • Abroad
  • Reviews
  • Shop
    • Trail Meals
    • Basecamp Essentials
  • Events
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
Homemade Lara Bar Recipes

Homemade Larabar Recipes

Homemade Lara Bar Recipes

11/07/2018 //  by Monica Shaw//  9 Comments

Here’s a few tasty recipes for making your own homemade Larabars (or Laraballs depending on the form factor!)

In case you’ve never seen them, Larabars are raw snack bars made with dried fruit and nuts (there are loads of these on the market now but I always think of Larabars as the original!). It’s a pretty simple formula that results in an amazingly tasty snack. And unlike many snack bars, they aren’t full of weird ingredients. In fact, most Larabar packages will list only two ingredients on the package: dates and nuts. With a food processor, these things are a cinch – and they’re tasty!

Making MONiBARZ

If you Google ‘homemade Larabars’, you’ll find loads of recipes and limitless flavour combinations, but these are the ones that worked the best for me (my personal favourites are Banana Bread and Cocoa Mole):

Cashew Cookie

  • 1 cup raw cashews
  • 1 cup dates
  • pinch of sea salt (optional)

Ginger Snap

  • 8 oz. dates, chopped
  • 1 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 3/4 tsp cloves
  • 4 1/2 oz. almonds
  • 3 1/4 oz. pecans

Banana Bread

  • 1/4 cup dates
  • 1/4 cup dried banana (Trader Joe’s sells these as “Nothing But Banana, Flattened”, or you can follow Oh She Glows‘ method for drying your own)
  • 1/3 cup raw almonds

Cocoa Mole

  • 1/2 cup cashews
  • 1/2 cup dates
  • 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/16 tsp cayenne pepper

Cherry Pie

  • 1 cup almonds
  • 1/2 cup dates
  • 1/2 cup dried cherries

The method for making any of these is the same:

  1. Pulse the nuts in a food processor until they’re crumbled into small bits, but not completely ground into a powder.
  2. Remove the nuts and put the dried fruit and any spices into the food processor. Pulse a few times so that the dried fruit forms a sticky goop.
  3. Put the nuts back into the food processor and pulse until everything comes together.
  4. Shape into balls or squares using your hands or a square container as a mold (see below).
Tips:
  • If your food processor isn’t doing a good job of goop-ifying the dates, try a blender on low speed.
  • If in step 3 the mixture doesn’t seem to come together, turn off the food processor and use your hands. Squeeze the mixture and see if it comes together that way. If not, you might need to add another date or two to the mix.
  • Try to get good, soft dates. I’ve used other dates that were almost smooth and hard on the outside – these didn’t work so well in the food processor and I had to use the Vitamix to goopify-them.
  • It helps to wet your hands before shaping the bars / balls.
  • All those people who take pictures of their Larabars (or other bars) artfully stacked and tied together with cute little ribbons must not live in the real world. Wrap them up individually in cling film or wax paper so that they’re practical and easy to transport.
  • The bars are easiest to shape by using a container lined with cling flim. Push the fruit-nut mush into the container, then remove and slice into whatever size you like:

Making MONiBARZ

Making MONiBARZ

I prefer “bars” to “balls” (affectionately termed “Monibars” and “Moniballs”, but my mom likes the balls because they’re bite-sized (I won’t read further into that).

The nice thing about these DIY Larabars is that they keep for ages so they’re handy to stash in the car or backpack as an “emergency snack”. They’d also make perfect high-energy portable treat to take on long hikes or bike rides: a good excuse to go trekking if you ask me.

Thanks to these helpful sources: Tastebook, Oh She Glows, So I Married a Chef, edible sound bites, This Chick Cooks

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on E-mail

Category: Hiking SnacksTag: nuts, raw, vegan

Sign up to receive latest posts by email

Privacy Policy
Previous Post: «Rhinogs wild camping Rhinog Traverse from Talsarnau to Barmouth
Next Post: Cadair Idris Walk and Wild Camp »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mardi (eat. live. travel. write)

    26/01/2013 at 7:39 pm

    This is a fab post Monica – you KNOW I will be making these soon. Larabars are so expensive!

    PS: I am glad you did not use ribbons to tie up the bars. That is a trend that needs to go away. (and yes, I have done this ONCE in a post)

    Reply
    • Monica

      28/01/2013 at 3:37 pm

      I won’t hold the ribbons against you, Mardi. 😉 Let me know if you make these and what you think!

      Reply
  2. Jes

    26/01/2013 at 10:25 pm

    I’ve been way too lazy to make a batch of larabar/balls, which is sad since I love munching on them so much, but, dang, they are easy to make. What have I been doing all this time? To the store, to get dates!

    (p.s., love Mardi’s comment on the ribbons–ha, so true, maybe if you’d done ribbons you should have put a little white glass of milk in the background with a striped paper straw 😉 )

    Reply
    • Monica

      28/01/2013 at 3:37 pm

      And the milk would have to be a mason jar. 😉

      Reply
  3. Rose

    27/01/2013 at 3:35 am

    I had *no* idea these were that easy to make. Once again, you have single-handedly revolutionized my breakfast. 🙂 (The last time was with your Breakfast Club post.

    I still love eggs for breakfast but these days, I am commuting quite a bit, and I need a handy on-the-go breakfast. I started buying nut-and-fruit bars and never even thought I could do them myself (I am still in the early stages of making my way through my own remedial cooking program, ha.)

    In any case, I just made a batch and I am ready for breakfast for the week. Thanks again for the post!

    Reply
    • Monica

      28/01/2013 at 3:36 pm

      You’re welcome – I’m so thrilled you made these and enjoyed them!

      Reply
  4. Laura@howtocookgoodfood

    28/01/2013 at 10:38 pm

    Sometimes reading a post like this makes me feel good about the lack of styling on my food photos. Ribbons, stripy straws, milk bottles etc. Seems like as soon as you use them, much like in fashion, they are passé.
    Larabars sound like the way forward though given my love of dates. If they keep well then that is an added incentive for me to make a batch plus I have so many bags of nuts to use up 🙂

    Reply
    • Monica

      29/01/2013 at 7:58 am

      I’m not totally immune – Here is some ribbon. But in my defense, those moniballz were a Christmas present so ribbons are acceptable. But not a straw or mason jar in sight.

      I’m not sure how long the monibars keep but probably a REALLY long time given they’re made of dates and nuts and both of those ingredients last for ages.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Wild Camping Food: What To Eat On a Wild Camping Trip - Eat Sleep Wild says:
    22/08/2019 at 10:16 am

    […] are high energy and contain now processed ingredients or refined sugars: homemade energy bars, raw snack bars, no bake protein […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Follow our journey

  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Search

Sign up to receive latest posts by email

Privacy Policy

Topics

  • Guides
  • Monica's Field Notes
  • Recipes
    • Campfire Recipes
    • Camping Breakfasts
    • Camping Desserts
    • Dehydrated Camping Food
    • Hiking Snacks
    • Main Dishes
    • Wild Camping Food
    • Wild Food Recipes
  • Reviews
    • Gear Reviews
  • Trip Reports
    • Brecon Beacons
    • Cotswolds
    • Dartmoor
    • Scotland
    • Snowdonia
    • Wales
    • Wild Trips Abroad

Footer

I’ve been trialing biodegradable packaging solut I’ve been trialing biodegradable packaging solutions for our lightweight trail meals and really impressed with the quality, range, and look of these pouches from @jamopackagingsolutions. My packaging has always been recyclable but this will take it a step further. I’m also looking at doing bigger bulk bags to further minimise packaging. I welcome any and all ideas for making my products more environmentally sound! …. brief rant alert… There is definitely a booming interesting in the outdoors at the moment which is obviously awesome, though respect for the environment is another matter and when it comes to food, I don’t think enough people are making the link between our food choices and our enjoyment of the natural world. No doubt trail food needs to be convenient, but this often leads to lots of plastic packaging and processed ingredients. OK, rant over, I just wanted to let you know where I’m coming from! And I’m by no means perfect. Still learning all the time, and trying to do better. That’s what it’s all about. 🌍 ✌️
The lesser seen white-flowered snake's head fritil The lesser seen white-flowered snake's head fritillary spotted on my walk this morning, plus forget-me-nots, wild garlic, and of course the bog standard friitillaries. Oh, and people! This time of year sees a surge in visits of nature photographers and their massive lenses crouched on the ground, typically at the prime hours of sunrise and sunset (the only downside to this time of year on #ClattingerFarm - the people! I’m used to having the place mostly to myself! I should be happy of course that people are getting outside - and I am! - but as an introvert who cherishes solitude, it can be a bit much!). 

#clattingerfarm #wiltswildlife #wiltshirewildlife #wiltshire #wiltshirewalks #snakesheadfritillary #wildflowers #wildgarlic #terrier #adventuredog #dogwalk #meadowlife #meadow #hedgerow #inaturalist #naturelover #plantlover #hikersuk #ukhikers #fritillary
Now is prime time in these parts for gathering wil Now is prime time in these parts for gathering wild garlic buds for one of my favourite foraged creations: pickled wild garlic buds! (Cue #Portlandia episode: “We can pickle that”.) Make a pickling liquor of equal parts sugar, cider vinegar, and water. And a good pinch of salt and a peppercorns (feel free to add other spices, as well). Bring it all to a boil then leave to cool. Pour over the wild garlic buds in a clean jar.  Leave for a few days. Enjoy! How to use them? Pickled wild garlic buds are one of my favourite pizza toppings! They’re also at home on a charcuterie board or as a sweet-sour garnish for pretty much anything (salad, stir fry, whatever). #wildgarlic #pickles #pickled #wecanpicklethat #foraged #forager #forage #foragedfood #foodforfree #wildfood #cotswolds #cotswoldswalks #nature #naturelover #cirencester
IMHO the best #wildgarlic soup. Featuring nigella IMHO the best #wildgarlic soup. Featuring nigella seeds, ginger, celeriac, leeks, and some broccoli stems I had going spare. Garnished with feta and more nigella seeds. Inspired by @sugarcuredprawn’s recipe on @gbchefs https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/wild-garlic-soup-recipe-marinated-feta
I expected to get soaked this afternoon so this wa I expected to get soaked this afternoon so this was a pleasant surprise. My only practice for longer bike trips is to do my local journeys by bicycle as much as possible, with loaded panniers if the occasion calls for it (today the load included many tins of tomatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, celery, plus a bottle of something red and Italian, all essential ingredients in our dehydrated Mushroom Bolognese which you can buy in the shop with our other trail meals #shamelessplug). It generally seems to work, though I have a sneaky suspicion that I’m going to be eating @globalcycleadventures’s dust this May on our little Devon weekender. 🤪🤣 🚴 #jamisbikes #ortlieb #biketouring #cycletouring #cyclecommute #cycling #cyclinglife #cotswolds #thecotswolds #bikeride #biketour #cycletherapy #cycletheworld #twowheels
Copyright © 2019 Eat Sleep Wild | All rights reserved | Privacy Policy
Website by Callia Web

Sign up to receive latest posts by email

Privacy Policy
  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021 Eat Sleep Wild · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Mai Theme