This weekend I did some snack prep! Much more fun than dinner prep, right? I had some dried apricots that needed using and settled on these apricoty, orangey pecan and almond bars with a sinful orange icing.
I’m eating one right now with some tea, and it’s quite the perfect breakfast. Not too sweet, not too nutty…with just a bit of orange accent. I adapted the recipe from Elana’s Pantry. I’m not one to bake, and especially to bake energy bars (raw is my go-to for snack bars) but these were so simple I will definitely make them again. I can easily use different ingredients to mix it up. I’m thinking dried blueberries and lemon zest next time or maybe some ginger? Yum.
I made the icing because I felt like they weren’t sweet enough for the husband (there’s no added sweetener in the recipe, just the apricots). It was definitely a decadent add-on, but really makes the bar special. Next time I might make a batch for him with a bit of real maple syrup or honey, but for me, they were perfect as is.
I also made some apricot granola, look out for that post later this week!
Apricot Orange Energy Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried apricots
- 1 cup raw pecans
- 1 cup raw almonds
- 2 eggs
- ¼ teaspoon Celtic sea salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla powder or extract
- ½ cup cacao nibs or chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- For the icing: 1 cup confectioners sugar juice from 1 orange, zest from 1 orange.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Combine apricots, almonds and pecans in a food processor. Pulse until well chopped, mix should resemble coarse sand. Add in eggs, orange zest, cocao nibs, salt and vanilla. Pulse until until mixture forms a ball. If using chocolate chips, stir them in at the end. Spread mixture into a greased 8 x 8 inch baking dish (or use parchment paper). Bake for 25 minutes. In a small bowl, prepare icing by stirring together the confectioners sugar, orange juice and zest. Drizzle over sliced, cooled bars.
