Date and almond guilt-free slice
Photographer:
You’ve indulged a little too much at Christmas right? Me too. What I find is that you can’t go cold-turkey on the sugar, you still crave that sweet hit mid-morning or mid-afternoon. This sweet treat is guilt-free and will trick your mind, leaving you sat-is-fied!
You don’t have to make the muesli part from scratch either; any gluten-free muesli will work if you combine it with the date mixture and shape it into balls.
Store in the fridge for the ultimate snack.
Ingredients
For the muesli
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup agave syrup or pure maple syrup
1 cup almonds
1 cup quinoa flakes
2 cups puffs (I used a mixture of brown rice puffs and millet puffs)
1/4 tsp salt
For the date mixture
1 1/2 cups almond meal
1/2 cup coconut flakes
6 mejool dates
1 tbsp Dutch-press cocoa powder
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup chia seeds
Method
For the muesli
1. Melt the coconut oil with the agave syrup.
2. In a food processor blend 1/2 cup of almonds until reasonably fine and the other half still reasonably chunky (think a rough chop).
3. Mix the coconut oil mix with the almonds, the puffs and the salt.
4. Line a slice tin with greaseproof paper. Press the muesli mixture firmly into the tin, about 1 cm thick (you might need two tins). Bake for 15-20 minutes on 170ºC.
7. Take out and leave to cool.
For the date mixture
8. In a food processor blend the coconut, deseeded dates, cocoa, water and coconut oil.
9. In a large bowl mix the blended date mixture with the almonds and chia seeds.
10. Press the date mixture evenly on top of the muesli mixture.
11. Transfer the slice to the bench, leaving it on the baking paper.
12. Place another piece of backing paper on top of the date mixture and using a rolling pin, roll the two slices together. The muesli will stick to the date mixture.
13. Cut the slice into squares. Any excess muesli which doesn't stick can be added back to the muesli jar.
14. Store in the fridge.
can I substitute anything for the coconut oil (e.g. almond butter)?
Hi – for the muesli you can use rice bran oil, olive oil or good old butter!
For the date mixture you can use almond butter or one of the fats I listed above.
Happy cooking, Sara.