Coconut Chia Bars

There’s nothing like starting the year off in style and in good health, right ?! These bars are going to save your life ( not literally ) at work, traveling or in the evening crumbled into your banana ice cream. These babies kept me happy while I was traveling over the holidays.

Crunchy and surprisingly light, they crumble like a digestive in your mouth. The lucuma gives that yummy biscuit taste, but you could sub that out for the same amount of your favourite protein powder to boost the protein content a little and make it a more well balanced snack. I have kept the sweetness on the low side, so, if you prefer something sweet, bump that up a little by adding more maple, some coconut sugar or more lucuma/fruit powders.

200g ( 2 ½ cups ) desiccated coconut

15g ( 1 tbsp ) golden flax seed
24g ( 2 tbsp ) chia seeds
200g ( ¾ cup ) water

75g ( ¼ cup ) maple syrup
25g ( 2 tbsp ) lucuma
25g ( 2 tbsp ) coconut flour

Optional Spices/ Flavours

1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cardamom powder
½ tsp vanilla powder
¼ tsp almond extract

Method

• Soak the coconut in enough water to cover for 20 mins – 1 hour.

• Strain the coconut in a sieve and save the soak water for drinking. It’s sweet and delicious.

• Combine the chia and flax seeds in a bowl and add the water. Allow to soak for 2 hours or overnight. The seeds will float at first, but stir periodically after 20 minutes and they’ll incorporate into the water.

• Add the soaked seeds and all remaining ingredients to the bowl of coconut and mix well to combine.

• Pour the contents of the bowl onto a teflex lined dehydrator tray. Spread the mix with an offset spatula / cranked spatula to about 1 inch thickness in a large square shape.

• Dip the spatula in water as needed to keep it from sticking to the mix as you spread.

• Once ready, score into bars or squares using the spatula.

• Dehydrate on 115f for 10 hours, flip onto mesh and dry a further 10 hours or until completely dry and crisp.

• Allow to cool before storing in an airtight container at room temp for several months.

• Alternative, you can dip the tops in cacao paste or chocolate, decorate with some dried fruits and chopped nuts, and store the same way.

Here’s a handy video I put together for you on how to enrobe using cacao paste, but it applies to using any type of chocolate.

Garnishes

• Dried Fruit – figs, cherries, white mulberries, goji berries and apricots would all look nice.

• Freeze Dried or Slow Dried Fruits – they’re brighter than dried fruits so they would make it a lot perkier.

• Chopped Nuts and Seeds – think colour here, so pumpkin seeds, pistachios and sliced almonds would be nice.

• Cacao Nibs

• Bee Pollen