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?
Looks great, Katie!! I love the chocolate peanut butter ones. Because–what is there not to love? My favorite, though, is still ginger snap. An oldie but a goodie 😀
The first Larabar flavor I ever tried was the banana bread flavor and I fell in LOVE! I love banana bread and the banana bread flavored Larabar tasted exactly like it! My other favorites? Coconut cream pie, carrot cake, peanut butter chocoalte chip, and cinnamon roll! 😀
PS – I just realized I never tried the Jocalat Larabars that you rave about all the time. I must get on that ASAP! 😛
Try the plain-jane chocolate Jocalats. They’re the best :).
u shud send them your recipe!!!!>. I LOVEEE ginger snap, banana bread, choc cookie dough.. basically ALL THE FLAVAS!
Haha I keep tweeting Larabar, dropping hints about a chocolate-raspberry bar. As much as I love making my own, sometimes I like to save time and just grab one at the store. Chocolate raspberry would be the most awesome-licious thing ever!
I love the peanut butter cookie larabars. I actually can’t try a lot of their flavors though because I can’t tolerate almonds, and they add almonds to almost all of them!
I like the taste of my homemade bars better, but I have to admit, I VERY much prefer the Larabar’s texture. I wish mine stuck together that well. They always turn out more crumbly than I’d like. Even if I add more dates, they still don’t seem to hold well.
Have you tried putting an individual serving in a plastic bag, closing the bag, and then smushing it? I can get them VERY tightly-packed this way.
Have you ever tried any other “sticky ingredient” besides dates? I always see dates but wondered for variety if there is anything else that can be used.
I haven’t, personally. But others have said they like using raisins or prunes. Oh, I think I tried figs once and didn’t like it. But, once again, others have tried figs and DID like it!
One of my most well received raw treats uses dried apricots as the “sticky binder.” I made a ton of raw desserts for my brother’s rehearsal dinner (about 80 people, all non vegan in attendance), and I swear those were the favorite. You can use all dried apricots or a 50/50 mix with dates.
Oh wow, I never thought to use apricots! That opens up a whole new set of opportunities with which to experiment!
Oh wow, great ideas Teresa and Katie! Thank you so much for your suggestions. I will be giving both figs and apricots a try! Yum!!!! Happy eating!
Let me know how your experiments go. I’m interested to know how they taste as well!
I so wish I had a food processor right now. Those look delish.
I love Lara bars!!! My current favorite is the peanut butter chocolate chip one and I also like the peanut butter and jelly one. The Jocalat chocolate mint one tastes amazing too! By the way, I am pretty sure I saw Jocalat bars at the Whole Foods on Park, but I am not positive. They have had them at the Drug Emporium in Denton too. As for a new flavor…what about Snickerdoodle? Or mixed berries and make it with dried cherries, blueberries, and cranberries?
Ooh good to know! I couldn’t find them at Plano or any of my other local shops. Might have to make a trip out to Northpark!
P.S. Snickerdoodles: https://lett-trim.today/2010/08/25/raw-snickerdoodle-cookies/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
🙂
Fabulous! I should’ve looked first…oops!
Oh lol no worries! It’s hard enough to keep one’s own recipes sorted out, let alone someone else’s!
Oh how funny- I just saw this and we were just tweeting about Lara bars! I will definitely have to make this recipe asap because it looks delicious! I’ve never actually had the jocolats but I’m going to look for them now! My favorites are the ones that have chocolate in them too! I love the choc pb, the choc coconut, the chocolate cookie dough… haha clearly a theme here 🙂
Haha you are a smart (chocolate chip) cookie!
First of all, yes you’re absolutely right that homemade is better, and not to mention much cheaper and super easy to make! Interestingly, even though I LOVE chocolate, I’m not a huge fan of the Jocolats. And, while I abhor cherry or lemon desserts, (lemon meringue, cherry pie, etc.) my favorite Lara bar flavors are cherry pie and both the lemon and key lime flavors. Coconut follows close behind. I’m fairly certain tho, that it all comes down to the ingredients used. Lara bars use actual real dried cherries, and real lemon and lime juice, while I really don’t even want to know what kind of scary faux additives and ingredients are used to make those traditional cherry and lemon flavored desserts (that I’ve stayed away from since I was a kid).
I made your healthy starbucks frappucino! I was a little skeptical at first because I tried the chocolate cake batter ice cream and it was kinda icey, but this was really good and tasted lke the real thing. It might have helped that I added in some chocolate chips and a dollop of chocolate syrup! Yum! Thanks for taking time to create such amazing recipes 🙂
I’m so excited you liked it! Haha yes chocolate makes everything better!!
and peanut butter! Seriously, I think I have it at least twice a day even if it’s just a little bite. I think I’m going to make those chocolate pb cup babies today, but with peanut butter instead of peanuts and I’m hoping that upping the proportion to 1 cup of dates will work! My favorite larabar is peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough 🙂
Mmmm agreed. PB makes everything better. I can’t think of a single food it doesn’t go with!
I love larabars! I used to love Clif bars, but larabars are definitely better in my opinion. I love coconut cream pie and I just tried cherry jocolat for the first time. I found some at a clothing store (?) for 33 cents each! I bought 10! 🙂
LOL don’t get attached to those! They’ve discontinued the chocolate-cherry Jocalats!
These look delicious!
Chocolate chip cookie dough is my FAVORITE! I have one for dessert 3-4 nights a week. Cashew cookie and coconut cream pie are next in line. My husband loves the chocolate brownie so I think I’ll have to give this recipe a whirl. Looks delish!
I didn’t like larabars at first either! I think I tried an apple one and it just tasted like mush to me. I fell in love with them after apprehensively trying the peanut butter cookie one. Now I have a whole range of favourite flavours!
And my favourite is now the mint chocolate jocalat!
How about a snicker doodle larabar? 😀
Mint chocolate or cinnamon roll!
Stock up on the cinnamon roll if you see them, they are discontinuing that flavor!
I am dreading the day when they discontinue the chocolate Jocalats. Larabar, if you’re reading this: Don’t do it!!! 😉
Could you possibly make a cinnamon roll version for us? I know it’s not chocolate, but I’m sure it would taste quite lovely!
I love Larabars! Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough are two of my favorite flavors, but I also love the standard Cashew Cookie. The PB & J flavor is good too!
I think they (or you!) should make a flavor with pumpkin. Or a flavor with a different dried fruit mixed in…like figs or goji berries! A carob flavor would also be awesome.