Vegan protein bars/crust for pie/chocolate covered seed balls

Use this recipe for ‘no-bake’ pies, mousse pies, vegan ‘cheese’ cake, protein bars or roll into small balls and dip in vegan semi-sweet fairly traded melted chocolate chips yum-delicious! This is a recipe that can vary depending on what you have on hand.

You need a food processor to really grind it all down, and I tend to just add a bit of this and a bit of that when I cook, so the measurements are a basic guide, meant to be played with!

1/2 cup each: organic dates and organic raisins- process these to a finely chopped mix

Add 1/2 cup each: all organic and raw- pecans,  pumpkin seeds, and shredded coconut.

Optional: 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, black sesame seed

1/4 – 1/2 cup peanut butter or almond butter

to further sweeten (the dates and raisins are fairly sweet) I add either organic maple syrup, or agave nectar, or a bit of molasses (1-2 Tblspn) and barley malt sweetener.  Begin by adding a small amount-1/4 cup or so, and add as you need more.

1-2 cups organic raw oats-process well: I add this to create the consistency desired, you want to be able to form a ball, and have it hold it’s shape, but not too oily (from the nut butters).

a bit of salt, and sometimes I add freshly grated nutmeg!

set aside a small amount of this mixture.

Then either press the larger portion of the seed mixture into a pie plate, creating a thin crust, or spoon into a lightly oiled dish (coconut oil is nice for this) and press mixture into a ‘energy bar’ like thickness and chill for a bit.  The bars can be cut and wrapped in waxed paper, or left in glass container in the fridge.  Add other ‘pie’ ingredients to the crust and chill.  I’ve never used this for a baked pie, but I think it would work well.  Eat within a week.  I’ve never tried to freeze the protein bars, they’ve really never lasted that long to explore this!

Now, take the mix you set aside, and roll into small seed balls- set aside and in a double boiler, melt vegan, organic, fairly traded dark chocolate.  Mix smoothly when melted and place seed balls in the chocolate and cover- place chocolate covered seed balls on waxed paper and place in fridge for a few hours prior to serving.  Don’t wait too long though…Eat fresh!  Enjoy! Linda

~ by linda on March 15, 2008.