Paleo Chocolate Nut Bars

Yields 24 bars

Ingredients

• • 8 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, broken into chunks

  • ½ cup extra virgin coconut oil

  • ¼ cup almond butter

  • ½ cup honey or maple syrup

  • 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

  • 2 cups tree nuts (I like to use a mixture of almonds, pecans, and cashews)

  • 8 oz chopped dates

  • 1/3 cup flax seeds

  • 1/3 cup sunflower seeds

  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

• 1. Preheat oven to 325° F, and grease a 13"x 9" baking dish.

  2. In a medium-sized sauce pan over medium-low heat, combine the chocolate, oil, almond butter, and honey, stirring occasionally.

  3. While chocolate mixture is melting, place nuts, dates, and seeds in a food processor.* Process until nuts are thoroughly chopped and the mixture looks homogeneous.

  4. Remove the chocolate mixture from heat once chocolate is melted, and add vanilla, mixing well.

  5. In a large bowl, combine the coconut with the nut, date, and seed mixture. Add salt, and mix well.

  6. Add chocolate mixture to dry ingredients in the bowl, and mix thoroughly.

  7. Pour mixture into baking dish, and bake for 20-25 minutes.

  8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting into bars. Store bars in the refrigerator.

*You can simply purchase finely chopped nuts if you do not have a food processor or other means of chopping whole nut pieces.

There is room for variety with this recipe, provided the solid and liquid proportions remain about the same. You might want to try one of the following variations:

• add 1½ tsp cinnamon

• substitute 1 Tbsp almond extract for the vanilla extract.

• substitute chia or sesame seeds for the flax or sunflower seeds

• substitute raisins, figs, prunes, or dried cranberries for dates