Homemade Date Bars

Recently I made a batch of my own Homemade Date Bars, followed by a second batch only a few days later. I really enjoy LARABARs. They are a great way to refuel after a workout. But I also enjoy making homemade foods, so this recipe is the best of both worlds.

How to Make Homemade Date Bars

Some of you asked for a recipe for my homemade date bars. I started by looking at the LARABAR website, where the ingredients for all of their bars are listed. The ingredients are also listed on the package of each bar, in order of most used to least used ingredient. Keep in mind pitted dates will form the bulk of your recipe, despite which flavor you make. This recipe is for a cranberry-flavored homemade date bar.

Ingredients:

• Pitted Dates

• Dried Cranberries

• Walnuts

I bought an 8-ounce bag of pitted dates and that made me what I would say is equivalent to eight mini LARABARS or about six of the regular bars. I found a jumbo case of dates at the grocery story after purchasing the small bag. Next time I’ll buy in bulk.

I filled my Cuisinart Mini-Prep Processor (4 cup capacity) with 3 cups of dates. I chopped the dates for a few seconds. Then I added 1/8 cup of dried cranberries and 1/8 cup of walnuts. Then I chopped the ingredients again until they were well blended.

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Once the ingredients are chopped, place a sheet of wax paper on top of a plate and then pour the mixture on the paper. Push down pretty hard and form the mass of ingredients into one large thick bar. Let the bars chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Take them out, unwrap the large bar, cut it into smaller bars and re-wrap each bar in its own wax paper. Store in an air-tight container.

Homemade Date Bars

I stored the homemade date bars in the refrigerator. The big difference with making these at home is that you won’t have the airtight, light-resistant packaging that a purchased bar would have. I opted to store mine in the refrigerator just to make sure they didn’t get too warm sitting out and possibly go bad. They were so good I ended up eating the first batch of homemade date bars in just two days.

*This post was originally published in 2010 and has been updated and republished for accuracy and comprehensiveness.