The other day, when I spotted the new Larabar flavors at the store—chocolate chip cookie dough, chocolate chip brownie, carrot cake, and peanut butter chocolate chip—my hand involuntarily reached out to snatch them.
(Well, I only got these two, so I did manage to not buy all the newest Larabar flavors.)
I love to make my own Homemade Cookie Dough Larabars, where I can put in extra-dark chippies and use whatever nuts I want (sometimes I like using almonds in place of the cashews). But then again, isn’t homemade always better?
As far as packaged bars go, I thought the cookie dough was Larabar’s best flavor yet! But the brownie bar was seriously lacking in the chocolatey department. Jocalats are much richer. I ended up giving the rest of the brownie bar to my dad (who really would eat anything!) and took all of 5 seconds to make myself a different snack:
Homemade Peanut Butter Larabars
Question of the Day:
Have you ever tried making your own Homemade Larabars?
If so, what’s your favorite flavor? If not, you really should try; it’s super-simple, quick, and much less expensive than buying pre-packaged bars. Plus, you get to make up your own flavors! Best part!!
I agree with you, although I liked the Choc Chip Brownie more out of those two. I love their Cashew Cookie flavor, so I don’t know what went so horribly wrong with the C. C. C. Dough! Part of the problem is it just doesn’t fresh – it has this “old” taste (even though they are brand new flavors!). I think homemade is the best way to go for these flavors! Low-quality chocolate ruins everything, even if they did use fair trade, taste matters too!
Can’t wait to hear more about the guy adventures! Oooooh la la!
Yes yes! I make homemade Lara bars, except in England, they’re homemade Nakd bars (Nakd do bars that are very similar to Larabars, which we don;t have here). I love them! It’s nice to gfive them my own flavours 🙂
yay! thanks britchickruns – i’m in england too and have been wondering what this seemingly ubiquitous and essential larabar was “in english”!
As for putting something like this together myself, I semi-accidentally picked up carob powder whilst shopping today. Is this gonna be any use, anyone?! :S
Hmmm… I don’t know much about carob powder. Maybe you could use it like cocoa powder? Try googling “recipes with carob powder.”
I hate to admit it, but I’ve never had a Larabar!!! I know, I know, where have I been?! I’ll have to try one, so I can see if my homemade ones are similar! 🙂
I’ve made my own before because spending over $1.00 for a bar made with just dates and nuts seems silly, but for some reason I’ve been wanting to try the new ones just because I can’t seem to find them! It’s like a challenge for me. I found the carrot cake yesterday and grabbed it right away.
Did you try it? When you do try it, let me know what you think, since that’s one of the flavors I left behind.
Yes! I finally made my own the other day. I used your site for reference but forgot to take pictures…so I couldn’t link to you.
I made peanut chocolate chip and “Cherry Pie!” My boyfriend loved them!
Thanks!!!
Aww you’re such a sweet girlfriend 🙂
Your bars ARE better, no question.
I just tried making some of your “babies” yesterday! I made a Pecan Pie flavor– and it was delish! I’d say they ARE better than the packaged version!
My favorite Larabar flavor is Gingersnap, so maybe one day I’ll try re-creating that! And I’m dying to try the new Carrot Cake flavor! (carrot cake is one of my favorite treats EVER!)
Thanks for the recipe ideas! 😀
The carrot cake one is GOOD.
The brownie wasn’t bad and neither was the cookie dough.
Not amazing but not terrible. Too dry, for sure, and the brownie could have used more cocoa oomph. I thought the chips tasted fine, though. I ate them frozen so the texture of mine were obviously a bit different than folks who ate them room temp.
I agree that homemade are better than both those flavors.
The carrot cake, though? Really excellent. Full of spices and soft and chewy. Definitely a winner.
I tend to like my babies with more dates than nuts so they are super caramel-like and chewy. I freeze mine and eat them “frozen” (since dates don’t ever truly freeze) so they are chewy chewy and like little balls of candy. I used about half the amount of nuts called for in Katie’s recipes, typically, so the Laras aren’t ever date-y chewy gooey enough for me.
The carrot cake, cherry pie and the coconut cream pie are my favs of the Lara Bars, probably due to them being so much more than just a date/nut bar… they’ve got other stuff going on and, now that I think of it, they are the softest varieties I’ve had. I like ’em CHEWY! 🙂
I WISH homemade was better, I am sure it is, but I am just unmotivated to make my own! 🙂 i like the idea of cookie douh/peanut choco chip bars though because we dont have anything like that here. My fave lara bar is pecan pie or pb and j, or the banana bread one (albeit a bit dense!) i DETEST the cinamon roll one!
xx
Hahaha I detested that one too! But when I make my own cinnamon ones, they’re one of my favorite flavors. Go figure!
I have the new peanut butter chocolate chip, but haven’t tried it yet. That’s gonna happen this afternoon, for sureee.
I had to stop making homemade Lara bars because I didn’t exercise a whole lot of self-control around them. They’re too delicious! But I did discover another way of making them – replace half or all of the nuts with raw oats. That plain combo of oats and dates was my favorite.
Oats and dates? oooh that sounds like raw oatmeal cookies. I’ll have to try your idea!