I have been working hard to steer clear of most sweet treats, so I thought these lightly sweetened energy bars might satisfy the sweet tooth, without the guilt. They’re a combo of crunchy and chewy, with sweet bites of dried fruit and toasted coconut and seeds. They taste almost like a crunchy peanut butter cookie, due to the sunflower seed butter that holds all of the ingredients together. Mind didn’t hold together totally, but tasted awesome just the same.
Even energy bars made with healthy ingredients can contain processed sugars, artificial ingredients, and have as much fat as a candy bar! And those chocolate-covered, or peanut butter-covered ones are more candy bar than anything.
These were pretty easy to make! All you need to do to bake a batch of these Super Seed Energy Bars is toast a few ingredients in a pan, mix in the honey and sunflower butter, press them into a pan and bake.
Make sure you don’t skip toasting the nuts and seeds. You might want to save time and skip that step, but it only takes about five minutes. The toasting improves the flavor and texture of the coconut, pecans, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds to make it worth the extra effort. Place the dry ingredients in a wide-bottomed pan over medium-low heat and stir them constantly to get an even toasting. If you walk away from them while they are cooking, they can burn really quickly. I have burnt the coconut more than once!
Ingredients:
- Nonstick cooking spray
- ¾ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- ½ cup chopped raw pecans (or walnuts or cashews)
- ⅓ cup sesame seeds
- ¼ cup raw pumpkin seeds
- ¼ cup ground flax seeds
- ¼ cup unsweetened dried cranberries (or unsweetened dried fruit like apricots, blueberries, raisins, or cherries)
- ¼ tsp. sea salt (or Himalayan salt)
- ¼ cup raw honey
- ¼ cup sunflower seed butter
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Line an 8 x 8-inch pan with parchment paper. Lightly coat with spray. Set aside.
- Cook coconut, pecans, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until toasted.
- Place coconut mixture, flax seeds, cranberries, and salt in a large mixing bowl; mix well.
- Add honey and sunflower seed butter; mix well.
- Place mixture in prepared pan. Press down hard to pack mixture evenly in pan. (Packing the mixture will prevent the bars from crumbling.)
- Bake for 14 to 16 minutes. Cool bars completely before cutting.
- Lift parchment paper from pan; cut into bars or you can use it as crumbles with yogurt even! Homemade granola!