Homemade Date Bars

Filled with the goodness of seeds and nuts on a smooth date base, these protein date bars are delicious and great as breakfast bars, healthy treats, snack, and a thoughtful gift. We call them all-in date bars! The bars are made raw with a mix of nuts, seeds, and dates.

Nuts and seeds are an important source of protein and healthy fats. Since we follow a largely vegetarian diet, our usual snack is a serving of mixed nuts and seeds. Both of us keep a box of mixed nuts, dates and also a smaller bottle of seeds close to our workstations.

Granola bars have been there since ages, they are convenient too, but since we didn’t want to add any grain to our snack, we stayed away from them. A few months ago, we found these nakd date bars in the market, which were 90% compressed dates with different flavors like pecans, cocoa, blueberries, etc. For a few weeks, we enjoyed them a lot. every week I would buy a dozen of them for the week. Soon the individual packaging of the shop bought date bars and the fact that they were coming from the UK so the carbon footprint of the bars started troubling us.

That’s when Sikander said, “we should be able to make these date bars at home.” First, we thought we won’t be able to compress the dates as tightly as they are in commercial date bars. We have a regular food processor, so another concern was if we would be able to crush the dates to a dough like structure. There was a little experimentation too… In the first batch, we ground the dates and nuts separately and then mixed them. As a result, the nuts were almost powdered but we wanted a bite of the nuts in the bars. Also while processing the dates alone, they tended to stick under the blade making it difficult to crush them and also difficult to remove them. Processing dates and nuts together solve both the issues!

This holiday season, we were traveling to meet our family and friends in the US and we took our homemade date bars and homemade granola as gifts. We could carry only so much but then what was fun was making these bars, and granola, and cookies with the kids at almost every home. The date bars dough is almost like play dough! You can add any flavors you want — cinnamon, coconut, chocolate, peanut butter! You name it 🙂 The most popular one in this season was cinnamon even with the kids.

This recipe is actually written by my nephew who wanted to save it for making it again and I asked him to send it to me. It was interesting to read what elements the “Millennials” need in a recipe, especially the “tools needed” section. I have to say, it’s pretty relevant too and I am thinking I should probably include it in my recipes from now onwards.

How to make raw nuts and date bars at home?

Ingredients for homemade date bars

1. Dates: Use any regular pitted dates that you find in your region. Not the dried dates of course. Pitted dates makes it easier else it would be a tedious task to remove seeds from all the dates. At some places, you might even find crushed dates.
2. Cranberries: Add about ¼th times dates. Dried unsweetened cranberries cut the sweetness of the date bars. Dates and cranberries together form the base of the bar.
3. Nuts: Use a mix of different nuts of your choice. Almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pistachios, macademia nuts all go well in the date bars.
4. Seeds: Add a mix of different seeds — chia, hemp, flaxseed, pumpkin, sunflower etc.
5. Optional add-ons: As an extra add-on for seasoning you can add some spices like cinnamon or all-spice or cocoa. If you take protein powder, you can add that too to the date bars.

Tools needed for making date bars

1. Basic utensils (spoons, knives, mixing bowls)
2. Measuring Cups
3. Food processor
4. Spice Grinder
5. Baking Trays
6. Parchment Paper

Instructions for making date bars at home

Making date bars at home is super easy and fun. There is absolutely no cooking involved and it is just a game of crushing, mixing, and setting.

1. Crush: and grind the dates, cranberries, nuts, and seeds.
2. Mix: them all together to make a dough.
3. Set: Pack the date bars “dough” in a tray and set in the fridge. Cut, store, and enjoy!

If you like this recipe, please take a moment to rate it and/or leave your feedback in comments. It will really encourage me to keep exploring, learning and improving.

4.57 from 23 votes

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Homemade Date Bars

Filled with the goodness of seeds and nuts on a smooth date base, these homemade date bars are delicious breakfast bars, healthy treats, snack, and a thoughtful gift. We call them all-in-one date bars!

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: Continental, Gluten-free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword: breakfast bars, dates dessert, dates recipe

Servings: 20 bars

Calories: 147kcal

Ingredients (1cup = 240ml; 1tbsp = 15ml; 1tsp = 5ml)

• 4 cups dates pitted
• 1 cup dried cranberries unsweetened

1¼ cup mixed seeds [¼ cup each of chia, hemp, flax, pumpkin, & sunflower seeds]

• ¼ cup chia seeds
• ¼ cup hemp seeds
• ¼ cup flaxseeds
• ¼ cup pumpkin seeds
• ¼ cup sunflower seeds

2 cups mixed nuts [ ½ cup each of pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, & cashew]

• ½ cup pecan halves
• ½ cup hazelnuts
• ½ cup almonds
• ½ cup cashews
• 1 tsp Ground cinnamon , optional
• ¼ cup Chocolate chips , optional
• 2 tbsp peanut butter , optional
• 2 tsp cocoa powder , optional

Instructions

• Combine all nuts in one bowl. Keep aside.
• Combine all seeds in one bowl. Take small portions and grind them to a powder using a spice grinder or coffee grinder. Repeat until all the seeds are ground.
• Add 2 cups of dates, half the nuts and half the cranberries to the food processor. (Adjust the quantity depending on your mixer capacity.)
• Process until mixture resembles the form of cookie dough, with very small pieces of nuts showing. You would need to stop in between, scrape down the sides and process again. You should be able to form balls with the date bar “dough”.
• Take out the mixture onto baking tray.
• Repeat steps 3-5 until all ingredients used above are finished.
• Add the ground seeds mixture to the baking tray with the date dough.
• Knead and mix until the date mixture and seeds powder are well mixed.
• For regular date bars, spread the dough evenly onto the baking tray and refrigerate for 6-8 hours.

For flavoured date bars, divide the dough into three parts to form three different types of bars.

• In one part, add cinnamon powder and mix together until cinnamon is well mixed in the dough.
• In another, add ¼ cup chopped chocolate chips and knead well. In the third add cocoa powder and mix well. 
• Take all three and press them into the trays into a rectangle/ square shape.
• In the cocoa date bar chunk, spread peanut butter on top
• Put trays into fridge overnight.
• Take them out, cut into bars, and enjoy!

Notes

• Bars should be stored in the fridge if not consumed. They will keep well for up to a month.
• Place parchment paper in-between bars when storing them or wrap them in parchment paper to take with you.
• Nutritional info is the approximate information for 1 regular size date bar without the optional ingredients.

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These homemade date bars are great as Christmas gifts. Make them in different flavors, wrap in parchment paper and tie with a little twig. Check out more homemade Christmas food gifts in my round up post:

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