These cranberry and pistachio energy bars have been a firm favourite in my house this month. They’re so quick to prepare and compared to traditional energy bars, which in my experience tend to be dry, flavourless and tough, these are moist, sweet and incredibly moreish. The best bit is you can easily swap the ingredients around depending on what you have in your pantry- I love flexible recipes. The perfect way to use up all of those leftover bags of dried fruits and nuts from Christmas. Pistachio and cranberry is a wonderful combination though, so I’d recommend grabbing these if you can. They freeze really well too, so I’ve been making a big batch on a Sunday to enjoy through the week.
Feel free to add in your favourite superfoods, nut butters, dried fruits, coconut shreds, whatever you fancy really, just keep the proportions of wet to dry ingredients the same and you’ll struggle to go wrong.
I’ve worked all through the Christmas period and now I’m off for three whole days and I can’t wait to cook and shoot again, I really miss it if I can’t take pictures every day. I’m going to be rustling up some turmeric lemonade today, after spotting this beautiful recipe on my friend Janine’s blog. Take a peek here to check it out, the photography is stunning and her blog is a joy to visit. If you’d like to follow her on Instagram, you can find her at @nutsandblueberries.
Hope you’re staying warm, my sweet peas! Wishing you a very happy New Year, roll on 2017!!!
Cranberry and pistachio energy bars
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 1/2 cup almonds, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup sunflower or pumpkin seeds
- 1/ 4 cup chia seeds
- 1 cup pitted dates
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup shelled and roughly chopped pistachios
- 1/4 tsp pink himalayan salt
- Preheat oven to 190•c. Pour oats, almonds, walnuts and seeds onto a baking tray and spread out evenly. Toast in the oven for 10 minutes, until slightly golden.
- Add dates and 1/2 cup of hot water to a food processor and blitz until a date caramel has formed. Add date mixture and toasted oat mix into a large bowl.
- In a small pan, gently melt maple syrup, coconut oil and almond butter. Once combined, add to the large mixing bowl with the date caramel and oats. Stir well until everything is coated. Now mix through the cranberries, pistachios and salt, leaving a few pistachios and cranberries for the top.
- Line a small square baking tin (mine was 8×8 inches) with parchment paper- leave a little hanging over the sides so it’s easy to remove later. Flatten the mixture down with your hands or the back of a spoon. Now add your remaining pistachios and cranberries to the top.
- Set in the freezer for 30 minutes, or an hour in the fridge. Cut into 12 bars and store in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.