Another chocolate recipe?
My goodness, you’d think this was some sort of chocolate-covered blog.
Oh wait; that’s right. It is.
The first time I tried a Larabar, I didn’t really like it. My mistake was in choosing a cherry-flavored bar. Someone should’ve shaken me and said, Hello! Of course you didn’t like it, Katie. It has no chocolate!”
When I tried a Jocalat chocolate Larabar, it was love at first bite. As a busy college student with no time to bake brownies, these bars offered a quick cure for my chocolate cravings (or a stopgap anyway. I doubt I will ever find a cure for my chocoholism… but that’s perfectly ok with me!)
Recently, I’ve been having trouble locating Jocalats. Thank goodness I know how to make my own chocolate Larabars.
Plus, they’re cheaper than store-bought and save packaging too.
Hot Fudge Brownie Larabars
Based on the recipe for Fudge Babies.
- 1 cup walnuts (120 g)
- 1 and 1/3 cups pitted dates (220 g) (I love SunMaid dates, as they’re much softer.)
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3-4 tbsp cocoa powder (or even Dutch cocoa)
- optional: 1/8 plus 1/16 tsp salt (I always add it)
- optional: chocolate chips or even a piece of a chocolate bar or baking chocolate
Blend all the ingredients, using a food processor or Magic Bullet. No need to blend the dates first; I just blend everything all at once in my MB. If you use drier dates than SunMaid, you might have to add up to 1 tbsp water. Form into bars. It might help to put dough in a plastic bag and close the bag, then shape into a bar. (Feel free to experiment with different nut combinations. I often sub almonds or cashews for some of the walnuts.)
Click for more flavors: Homemade Larabar Recipes.
What are your favorite Larabar flavors?
One of my favorite homemade larabar flavors: Homemade Oatmeal Cookie Larabars.
As for the real Larabars, my favorite flavors are the plain chocolate Jocalats and the cookie dough Larabars. I love making up my own flavors and am thinking chocolate-raspberry might have to be next! Any other flavor suggestions for homemade Larabar recipes you’d like to see?
Founds your page while searching how to make Larabars. I quickly made your chocolate fudge ones (had all the ingredients) and all I can say is WOW!!! Definitely be making more in the future.
Hi Katie!
I think I am missing this information but how many bars does this recipe/amount yield? I saw it was 175 calories per bar but not sure how many bars I should be making from this! P.S. this recipe/idea is sooo good!
OMG these taste like the (gross, over-processed, preservative-packed, but so yummy) Cosmic Brownies that I ate as a kid! I was craving some chocolate, but refuse to turn on my oven since the temp outside is over 100. I made a half-batch of this in my bullet blender and it turned out fine, even using the drier chopped dates! It took some serious squishing in a ziploc bag to get it to stick together, but it was worth the effort. Going for seconds now!
I made these today, they taste great! I thought they were a bit too dry to form into bars at first, so I added half a banana, which made them gooey, how I like em 🙂
I just made these these!
I used 1/2 Sunflower seeds and 1/2 Almonds, they were hard to shape into bars so I added 1/2 a banana like I read in the comments and they shaped up well! I shaped them in a small sandwich bag. I haven’t eaten one yet but I KNOW they will taste amazing.
I already made your healthy chocolate chip cookies, confutti balls, and some other stuff! I made a huge assorted platter for tomorrow morning for my family.
They already sampled some and they LOVE them! and my family are cheap eating, meat eating, 3 cups of sugar in cereal eating people! hahaha <3
You are so talented!
Aw thank you Cassandra. I am so glad they worked out for you… and I love your idea to add banana!
Just made these as we prepare for Hurricane Issac here in South LA. My children will love these while we are without power & can’t bake anything!
My son and husband love these. I’m a little “off” in my bar making abilities, so I just roll these. We’ve taken to calling them “Laraballs”. 🙂
Hi Katie!
Have you ever tried Pure Organic’s Chocolate Brownie bar? I’ve recently tried them and I like them even more than larabars! The brownie ones taste JUST LIKE WALNUT BROWNIES. They are so incredible. I’m completely obsessed.
Did I miss the yeild on this? I nearly eat them all by myself in 3 days anyways! Lol mmmmmmmm LOVE YOUR STUFF!!
OH my dear Katie. I am a South Beach Diet devotee. I only eat fruit carbs but sometimes a girl needs a treat! These are positively genius. My three children will eat them and we fight over the last bite! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!
I just made these and my oh my are they divine! I ended up substituting salted cocktail peanuts for the walnuts [that’s what I had on hand] omitted the salt called for in the recipe, used about a tablespoon of vanilla extract , added a cup of Toll House chocolate chips and used dates bought from Sam’s club called Medjool Dates. They were difficult to form into the bars…still working on that. But we heated them in our microwave for about 15 seconds and they turned out to die for! I will definitely be making more and trying some of the other Larabar recipes you have posted.
These are so good Katie! I made a double batch yesterday of the choc ones. Two of my kids are on swim team, so I try to make healthy protein snacks for them to grab…. I threw in about a quarter cup of flax seeds, some chia seeds, unsweetened coconut, a little coconut oil, and cocao nibs! They are very hearty, and actually much better than the store bought! I love your recipes. So helpful….
Just made these. They’re great! Thanks for sharing.
Ohhhhh – these are soooo good and I eat them with frozen bananas made into ice-cream. What a combination. I want to know how you get them to be so square – I can’t seem to achieve that – is there a secret.
Also, maybe I am putting too much dates/raisins as my formed ball comes out too greasy – I didn’t know that raisins are so juicy? I just add in more nuts?
These are amazing. I had been meaning to make something from your site for a while now and it wasn’t until I bought a box of larabars and realized I hated spending the amount of money on them that I finally broke down and bought some dates.
I whipped up a batch, shaped them into cookies and stuck them in the fridge. When I pulled them out they were nice and soft and I wasn’t worried about them falling apart in the hands of two 2.5 year old boys. They were perfect! My cookie loving twin kept asking for more, though his brother is still a little uncertain about them. ((mommy and daddy love them lots too))
I feel so much better about giving these to them in place of a more ‘traditional’ cookie. Thank you for the time and effort you have put into sharing all of this.
Oh my goodness, Katie! These are amazing! I tried 3 of the Larabar recipes tonight. ALL of them were delicious, but this one is my fave! Yummy – time for 2nds…3rds… ok… 4ths. Who am I kidding?!