Bar Wars, Return of the Laras
What’s your favorite bar? Lately, I seem to keep striking out on the bar front. Maybe the powers that be are just trying to tell me: Stop looking; you’ve already found more than enough that you love (Wilds, Jocalats, all varieties of fudge baby bars, and on and on). But even though I have enough variety, flavor-wise, to never be bored, curiosity gets the best of me each time I see a fun new product. I just love trying new things!
The latest: I finally tried the Larabar carrot cake bars that came in my surprise package from the company. Sad to say, I was, once again, underwhelmed. They weren’t bad or anything, but my own carrot cake bars are better. So, naturally—still craving carrot cake (Aren’t I always?), I had to go and make some homemade bars.
(I’m not the only one with a carrot addiction. These three guys apparently share my love!)
I topped off my homemade Carrot Cake Bars with coconut butter and carrot.
Lesson to be learned: coconut-butter-topped bars > coconut-butter-less bars every single time. The poor Larabars never stood a chance.
And there I go with the fake flowers again. Signature CCK. Hey, don’t hate on the fake flowers: they’re easier to take care of (no watering!) and they don’t die ;). But perhaps I, at least, need to invest in some new colors!
Above, Larabar meets homemade Carrot Cake Bar.
I don’t not recommend the carrot cake Larabars: If you’re a fan of dried pineapple, you’ll probably like them, because that’s all I tasted. Actually, to me they taste exactly like the apple pie Larabars with added pineapple. But my favorite Larabars are still—and probably always will be—the chocolate Jocalat bars. ‘Cause on them, you can perform the Brownie trick, taking these bars from yummy to YUMlicious!! Just a few seconds in the microwave leads to pure chocolate-brownie bliss. In summary: for carrot cake, I’ll stick to my bars. However, when it comes to chocolate, nobody does it better than Lara!
Microwave Brownie Trick:
- Unwrap a Chocolate Jocalat bar, and place on a microwave-safe plate.
- Microwave for about 15 seconds, then open the door and turn.
- Then microwave 10 seconds.
- Open door (to let some heat out) and microwave 10 more seconds if you want it really melty.
(Don’t microwave too long; burnt chocolate’s a party pooper.) If you want the baked-brownie taste but not the mess of the melted chocolate, you can put the cooked Jocalat in the fridge or freezer so all the melted chocolate re-hardens. Oh goodness, raw foodists hate me right now, don’t they??
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Sending HUGE thanks to all who defended me on yesterday’s post.
I won’t even mention the negative, but I can’t go without telling y’all how much your supportive comments meant to me. Actually, your kind comments always mean a lot to me; I don’t thank you enough. Thank you!!
Carrot Cake katiebar looks amazing! Scrumptious!
I am a day behind on my blogs and I am so sorry about the commenter yesterday. I am a small girl as well and I hate when people comment on my weight (and I have been at both ends of the spectrum, since I was much heavier before) It’s just as rude to comment on a small person’s weight as it is on a larger person–but most people wouldn’t dream about doing that, in fact no one said anything to me about my weight when i was big, but have no problem commenting now—crazy I tell ya!
anyways, keep rocking on with your awesome recipes! I get hungry every time i stop by your blog!
Look! It’s Nicole Richie pretending she can’t gain weight!!!
anon,
you just further helped katie’s case! nicole richie got pregnant, so she obviously wasn’t anorexic! i, of all people, thought she was. in fact, it annoyed me all the time that she was “getting away with it.” (you other anorexics know what i mean, right?)
but then she announced she was pregnant and i was like, well i guess she really wasn’t anorexic, because you can’t have a baby without a period, and one of the criteria for being anorexic is to not be getting a period. so see, some people really are just naturally like that, as much as it makes people like you (and me too) jealous to see!
Wow, I don’t think you understand physiology.
the only new larabar i like is the chocolate chip cookie dough one! i froze it for an hour or so and then ate it (Saw that on a blog somewhere) and it was the PERFECT after dinner treat. literally lived up to its name 😉
your carrot cake bars are sure pretty!!!
ps only trend setters and leaders have the most haters. and don’t insecure ppl always hate on the pretty and nice ones ; )
Fudge babies are so much better than Larabars. Granted I haven’t tried that many flavors of Larabars – partially because they’re pricey and partially because I’m always disappointed. They’re soooo sweet whereas fudge babies have just enough dates to sweeten without overpowering. I suppose that depends on how you make them, but the control is an important factor too. Suffice it to say that I’d take a fudge baby over a Larabar any day.
I vote for the katiebars! Maybe you should start selling them and then larabars will hire you on as their official flavor experiment kitchen operator once they realize how good your bars must be.
Ah, dream job.
But then they’d quickly fire me because I’d eat all the merchandise :).
Well, somebody has to test them out!
I have to admit, I am the same way–I can’t resist trying a new bar! The bar aisle at WF is always dangerous for me.
Of course the coconut butter-topped bar is better–coconut butter makes pretty much EVERYTHING better:)
Haters gon’ hate! They could at least be *original* about it. I mean, really… come up with something new for once. *eyeroll*
I’ve yet to try the Carrot Cake Larabar, but maybe when I do I’ll top it with coconut butter for maximum enjoyment. …or I could just make my own!
And I still think the [fake] lilies are pretty. They coordinate very well with the carroty colors!
Wow, Katie those look amazing, Not a huge carrot cake fan but I would go for those. I love many bars out there but I like the Green Plus bars in Dark Chocolate, (of course) right now. 🙂 Larabar chocolate chip is tasty too.
Katie, remind me again why I have yet to try out any of your pseudo-larabar recipes? Especially since I can’t get the new flavours here in good ol’ Canada?