PALEO: CHOCOLATEY 'LÄRABAR' BITES

So I just have to share with you reaaaaal quick that I have been whipping up some super awesome things up in this joint!

I had my first real Lärabar not too long ago. It was the Apple Pie flavor. It was meh, not my favorite. BUT, it was the only kind of "on the go" Paleo friendly snack thing I could find at the commissary! LAME right? So, I decided to go on a Homemade Lärabar Pinterest Spree. I found quite a few recipes that sounded good, but the one I am sharing with you today, is the one I tried. This recipe was originally done by Chocolate Covered Katie (I had to make a few changes due to my dates being really dry, but yay for happy mistakes!), you should totally check out her blog, she's got some great stuff over there!

Friends, this recipe is super duper simple! And you will end up with deliciousness! Just saying!

INGREDIENTS:

• 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
• A few tbsp of water depending on your dates.

DIRECTIONS:

Depending on how amazing your food processor is... you *could* just throw it all in the food processor and press go. However, my food processor is this POS (I don't recommend it, the blender is already broken...), so I had to put it in, in increments. 

My dates are also not the recommended "Sun Maid" Pitted Dates but the cheaper dates from a store here in Germany. So, I had to add a few tbsp of water (approx. 3-4) because nothing was happening.

I had no idea what kind of dough I was going for... so... I just stopped when it seemed like I could "mold" it, and I stopped before it was paste. haha.

It turned out to be super sticky (maybe too much water?), so I decided to roll them into tbsp sized balls instead of making them into bars. I used a tbsp to scoop out this super thick "dough" and rolled them into a ball with my hands. Now, this is super messy... I probably ended up with another ball's worth of dough on my hands... But... I couldn't get it off in a sanitary manner...  These are super sticky so, I took some more cocoa powder and rolled the balls into it, creating a sort of ... Truffle if you will. Totally the best thing ever. Makes 16 balls! *snicker*

You're done! These calculated out to be around 88 calories per ball. Try one out for quality control and store in an air tight container in the fridge!  I stuck mine in a zippy baggy.