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?
I don’t like ANY of the fruit flavored Larabars, but my favorites are the chocolate chip cookie dough, chocolate brownie nut, and peanut butter chocolate chip ones! I also like the plain chocolate and coffee chocolate Jocalat bars… mmmmmm! 🙂 These sound delicious, I am making some tonight!!! I think I’m going to add some peanut butter to the mix too!
You sound just like me! I don’t want fruity desserts… I want chocolate desserts! 😉
Although I love the Larabars that include chocolate (pb and chocolate/double chocolate), I crave the regular peanut butter one (it somehow satisfies my craving for a reese peanut butter cup even without the chocolate…sorry Katie!). I also just became a fan of peanut butter and jelly and the coconut Larabars. What’s funny is that in Canada (where I am from), we don’t have names like cashew or peanut butter cookie, but just “cashew”…same ingredients!
I love how different products have different names in other countries. And lol it’s the same thing with books too… and sometimes even movies!
Oh, my favorite: In Japan, they had to change the Ben&Jerry’s flavor “Chunky Monkey” because that literally translated to: Monkey Chunks!
I tweeted!
I’m sorry to say that I only just started experimenting with these larabar/fudge baby recipes, but OH MY GOODNESS! thank you! I used almonds instead of walnuts and it was absolutely delicious 🙂 I look forward to eating them for every snack!
I’m so happy you liked them!! 🙂 🙂
I made these a few days ago for my boyfriend to take out on the boat with him. He loved them and said they were better than store-bought. They are a great snack to take when we are working and need something that is quick and easy to scarf down. Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you so much for trying them!
I’ve never had a Larabar, but I love CCK and I have been meaning to find something snack-ish that I could make to take on the go (I’m a busy lady and I need lots of brain food). Wish me luck with this recipe, I’m adding more nuts, and some protein powder to amp it up a bit.
Ooh good luck!
These really do taste like fudge~ 🙂 I still have 2 bars left, I’ll probably just eat it all tomorrow ^^
http://milk-and-tea.blogspot.com
how many do these make (larabar size?)
Eight? It makes around 370g, and if a Larabar is 45g, I’m guessing a little over 8 bars.
This was too easy and soooo good! Had some spare almonds and macadamia nuts so I threw them in too. May have tasted more like your Raw Mounds Bars – I’ll let you know soon!
BTW, After tasting these, I will never again buy another store brand. Why would I? 😉
Mmmm macadamia nuts are amazing! If they weren’t so expensive, I think I’d throw them in EVERYthing! 😉
These look absolutely amazing – I can’t wait to run home and make them tonight!
Oddly enough, the only Larabars I’ve ever had were the ones you hated – the Cherry Pie variety. I actually really liked them (but then, I was in a tart mood, not a chocolate one).
Cashew Cookie!!!!
omg! i just made the girl scout cookie larabar and it is amazing. i never knew dates could taste so good. i have a feeling i will be making this bar many, many, many more times.
I’m so excited you liked them!! 🙂
i was definitely right about making these bars many more times. i made some more of the girl scout larabars and then i started feeling creative so i made another batch with some ground up coffee (sort of a spin off the tiramusi bar), i made another batch with almond extract, and another batch with some creme de menthe extract. i have a whole drawer in the refrigerator that is just larabars lol
All of those ideas sound fantastic – coffee, mint, these are a few of my favourite things! Thanks for the suggestions, Kirsten!
Hi, on the hot fudge brownie larabar recipe. How many should one recipe make?
Eight? It makes around 370g, and if a Larabar is 45g, I’m guessing a little over 8 bars
I tried making the hot fudge brownie Larabars, but my blender wouldn’t blend the dates! I even tried soaking them in water, cooking them, etc. and nothing would work!:( Do you use the Magic Bullet for these? I’m wondering if it works well to make some of your recipes (like the cookie dough dip, that doesn’t blend well in my blender either!) or if I should just not consider getting one? I know you’ve mentioned it several times, so I was just curious:D
Hi Chloe,
I do use a Magic Bullet for my smaller recipes… I think this recipe would be too large to fit in a Bullet. What dates are you using? I highly recommend the SunMaid ones, because they are VERY soft.
I did use the SunMaid ones, actually! Maybe I just got a hard batch lol. They seemed really hard on the outside, but soft on the inside to me! There could just be something wrong with my blender haha:)
Just had to give you feedback for these! Made them with almonds because I didn’t have any walnuts. At first, they were too dry to form, so I followed advice from the commenters and added some sultanas (raisins) and then they were perfect! The base recipe plus the extra sultanas made 13 small bars and a taste – DELICIOUS! While they’re a bit too energy-dense for every day snacks, they will be absolutely perfect for sticking in the back of my cycling jersey for endurance rides. So much cheaper than store-bought energy bars and without the ‘partially hydrogenated’ trans fats nasties that I’m not allowed to eat. Thank you so much, Katie – incredible!
Just made these, with a 1/3 cup of chocolate chips and some sea salt and they are the best thing I’ve EVER made. Dang.