July 2, 2021
When I think of the perfect summer picnic meal, I always think about portable foods. Recently, I’ve been packing up some of my favorite foods to bring along with me to the park a few minutes from where I live. With summer finally underway, I have been packing some of my favorite treats for picnics at the park. A couple weeks ago, I packed along some crispy tofu bánh mì sandwiches and white chocolate chip coconut cookies for a summer picnic. Sometimes, I would swap in another version of my favorite homemade breads (such as my everything seasoning bread or Parmigiano-Reggiano herb bread) as other options to take along with me to the park. These are all great options for picnic food because of how portable they are. At the end of the meal, I always crave something sweet and this is where my newest addiction, my strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut bars come in. Where do I start with my strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut date bars? First, I need to give credit where credit is due by acknowledging where my love of date bars in general originated from. My first experience enjoying a date bar was in the form of the eye-catching, simplistic Lärabar I first laid eyes on in the breakfast aisle of my local grocery store. This was back before we abruptly shifted to teleworking and I was looking for mid-morning snacks to pack along with me in my lunch bag. One of my colleagues had casually mentioned how much she enjoyed the Lärabar due to its simplicity of ingredients and friendliness to a variety of dietary restrictions. Her recommendation led me to try a few different flavors until I landed on my favorite, the almond butter chocolate chip. The bar was packed with pockets of melty almond butter and chocolatey goodness. It easily became one of my favorite flavors. While I do still love enjoying the bars occasionally, I started making a few of my own versions of the bar last year. I experimented with mixing and matching different flavor profiles until I happened upon the magical combination of strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut. The trick to getting the intense strawberry flavor into the bars (minus the liquid nature of the fruit) was to use freeze-dried strawberries. Freeze-dried strawberries are actual strawberry slices where the liquid in the fruit has been completely removed. What you end up with is a crispy fruit chip. The freeze-dried strawberries work wonders when added to my version of date bars. The rest of the ingredients for the date bars are hazelnuts, dairy-free chocolate chips, cocoa powder, freeze-dried strawberries, and dates (obviously). All I had to do was whiz all of these ingredients into a blender until I get to a somewhat wet, sticky, and crumbly texture. I know the blended ingredients are ready to shape into bars when I am able to press the mixture together and it holds its shape. Once I started making these strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut date bars, I could not stop making them. They are addictingly good. I would make some to bring along to some of our small friend gatherings and pack the bars wrapped up in parchment or wax paper as a dessert option for summer picnics. I can avoid turning on the oven and just whip out my food processor to make these bars. This is the exact reason for why I love making these bars during the summer. The best part about these bars is how friendly they are to a wide range of dietary restrictions. This means I don’t have to worry about bringing them to friend gatherings. Most recently, I brought a few of these bars to a small gathering with friends and children. The ultimate test was to see if the picky eaters (usually the children) would eat these bars. They did, so I can count these strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut bars as a success.
For the strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut date bars:
· 2-3 ounces dairy-free mini semisweet chocolate chips
· 4-6 ounces unsalted roasted hazelnuts, crushed
· 16-18 whole pitted dates
· 1 ounce freeze-dried strawberry slices
· 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Directions:
1) Set aside some of the semisweet chocolate chips and crushed roasted hazelnuts.
2) In a food processor, add in the remaining semisweet chocolate chips, remaining crushed roasted hazelnuts, whole pitted dates, freeze-dried strawberry slices, and unsweetened cocoa powder. Pulse all of the ingredients together in 30-second intervals until the mixture resembles a crumbly, sticky texture, about 3 minutes. Lightly squeeze the mixture with your hand to see if the mixture adheres together. If it does, the mixture is ready for forming into bars. Pour the mixture onto a large sheet of parchment paper.
3) Use the parchment paper to press the mixture together into a rectangular shape. Press the mixture together until it forms a tightly packed larger rectangular block. Press the chocolate chips and crushed hazelnuts you had set aside in the first step into the rectangular block. Fold up the parchment paper and chill the rectangular strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut block in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
4) When the chill time is up, remove the strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut block wrapped in parchment paper from the refrigerator. Use a sharp knife to cut the large block into individual sized bars.
Takeaways: These strawberry, chocolate, and hazelnut date bars can be easily customized using any chocolate chips, nuts, and freeze-dried fruits. I’ve made these bars multiple times before using a variety of nuts I had in my pantry. The bars taste equally good with walnuts, pecans, and cashews swapped in place of the hazelnuts. Other freeze-dried fruits such as blueberries or raspberries also work well in place of the freeze-dried strawberry slices. The unsweetened cocoa powder is a great touch to infuse additional intense chocolate flavor into the bars.
I like to wrap up any bars I have left in parchment paper and store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.