Must.Try. ;-) Yum!!

@ Doug and Sarah,

Have you made any of these in squares? They wouldn't look as good, but they might be easier to pack. Of course the round shape might actually be helpful when you're putting them into a bear canister.

@ Doug

The bacon sounds strange, but good...

I often make my bars in a loaf pan that I line with plastic wrap, shill, knock out and cut. I suspect you could do this and make two sets, fill, cut and top :-)

When I made my batch, I wasn't about to cut little circles and re-roll scraps, so I just cut the dough into rectangles and added the filling. Somehow I ended up with one mate-less rectangle, probably from my snacking on them, so I cut it into two triangles and added filling. No difference in taste! Luckily, my door was locked to keep out the circle police.

As for fillings, I tried almond butter and peanut butter and what I call lemon glop, which is a modification of a recipe previously posted here on BPL: 1 C nuts, 1 C honey, 1 C dates, 1 whole lemon. Grind it all up! I'm going to try leaving out the vanilla and adding another TB of cocoa in the crust recipe in my next batch.

Ooh yum!!

What is the difference between them and other dates?

Medjools are soft and sweet - and also big. Once you try them, you'll know why :-) Costco's are my favorite - in the produce section.

We were at Costco yesterday but they don't sell them so we had to buy them at Whole Foods. We did find organic Coconut Oil at Costco yesterday. It was only 16.00 for a huge jar of it. It is way cheaper than Whole Foods

The jar of Coconut Oil we bought was 54 ounces.

Edited by Ewker on 07/16/2012 17:33:02 MDT.

This is becoming my favorite recipe to play around with! I'm finding I make a batch every weekend for the week - they are a primary fat source for me now! ;-)

So I made them with raw macadamia nuts this past weekend. Tasty as always. The taste difference is very subtle between the different nuts, but it's fun to vary them. I don't find much difference in the 'dough' consistency, slight but nothing bothersome.

My really fun variation this weekend was adding a bit of Williams Sonoma Ancho chili powder to the filling for a couple of cookies (I didn't want to add to the whole batch in case I didn't like it). Some folks like their chocolate with a bit of spice/bite, I'm one of them, so I decided to see how these would taste with a bit of spice. Wow, they really came out great. Just a hint of the chili-ness without being overpowering (I used 1/16 teaspoon for two large cookies worth batter). FWIW, like one of the earlier posters, beginning with my second batch on, I only use 1 tablespoon honey instead of 2 as I found 2 a bit too sweet in all the variations I've tried.

So if you're one of those folks who likes to order Mexican hot chocolate or buy the chocolate bars with chilis, try a bit of chili powder in the filling with these cookies, they're very tasty!

Edited by idester on 07/16/2012 11:14:38 MDT.

Woah....yum!

I like the idea of ancho chili in bars. Cayenne works too. I have a date bar that has cocoa and chili in it. I know this sounds really strange but a small pinch of wasabi powder and a small pinch of cardamom (in combination) work really well in things that have chocolate or dates or maple.

Edited by Laurie_Ann on 07/16/2012 15:01:57 MDT.

We put the Coconut Butter in a jar and put it in hot water until it became a liquid. We then added the Agave and kept trying to mix it together. The coconut butter mixed with some of the agave but a lot of it still separated. It was a gob of mixture in a pool of liquid. No matter how long we stirred it the two never combined. any ideas what went wrong?

Did it set back up? It might have been too warm? I'd say if all else fails that run it through a mini-food chopper to or use a beater to mix. And worse case? Chill and get the butter to set back up a bit, then it should be able to beat.
But for me... I prefer locally sourced raw honey. Agave I find too sweet/bland - but that is my taste though!

Maple syrup might work in this as well if it is a thicker grade. I just wanted to mention a little about the glycemic index of agave vs honey. Honey is somewhere between 65 and 85 while agave nectar between 11 and 30. The reason I mention this is that the honey will give you a much quicker energy spike where as the agave will be a bit slower. What that means is that you'll have a little bit longer lasting source of energy from the agave. Also, the fat from the coconut will also help slow the spike of both the honey and the agave. Just thought you might find it of interest. Maple also has a lower glycemic index than honey but not as low as agave. And, if you are making the bars for a vegan... don't use honey.

Sarah,

It never set back up. We just had it sitting in hot tap water and it took a while to melt down. We tried the hand mixer and it separated even more. I wonder if the agave was too thin. We are out of honey but we do have some sorghum molasses we might try..do you think that might work?

We wanted to use the Cacao Bliss but Whole Foods and Traders Joes doesn't carry it :(

I wonder what sorghum molasses would be??

Eddy - in your first post you said you bought coconut oil, and in your next post you said the coconut butter didn't set up. Which did you use?

Ah yeah - cause the butter works different than oil. Big difference! The butter has pulp/fiber. Which btw, you can make coconut butter from unsweetened coconut.....

PS: As for the whole "vegans don't eat honey"....that is open to discussion. Some do, some don't. I have met plenty who do (I have attended some interesting conventions) I live a plant based life though and am not obsessed with bee rights......

Glycemic aside, I feel honey is the better choice - if raw and local. Agave has to be trucked in and why not support our hard working bees? It is also a way I can support local farmers. That and it just tastes better to me!

While maple syrup can stand in for honey in most recipes it has a taste (I know - I cook with very little sugar). So I save maple for items where it shines. With coconut? Not always.....

Sarah wrote: "PS: As for the whole "vegans don't eat honey"....that is open to discussion. Some do, some don't. I have met plenty who do (I have attended some interesting conventions) I live a plant based life though and am not obsessed with bee rights."

If one eats honey they are a vegetarian and not a true vegan because of the belief that the bee is exploited. It's like dairy... if you consume dairy you are a lacto-vegetarian not a vegan. It's merely a matter of terminology.

About maple and coconut... they actually work surprisingly well together.

"Eddy - in your first post you said you bought coconut oil, and in your next post you said the coconut butter didn't set up. Which did you use?"

I mentioned buying Coconut Oil at Costco because it was such a bargin compared to Whole Foods. That was in the discussion about Mejdool dates. I mentioned Coconut butter in the we have a problem post.

Edited by Ewker on 07/16/2012 21:40:41 MDT.