Baking Demo

Another recipe contest we're entering using Equal Exchange Chocolate. We decided to show you an amateur cooking demo to show you the making of our dessert!

Our recipe - Almond-Graham Apricot Bars with Dark Chocolate Glaze. These bars contain very little ingredients (all organic) to make it simple and natural. You could adapt it to keep it more raw if you didn't want to bake it.

Ingredients:
~ 2 cups dried apricots, unsulfured

1 cup almonds, no salt added

1 cup crushed graham crackers, ~24 graham squares (We use Health Valley's Oat Bran Graham Crackers)

8 Tbsp natural creamy almond butter, no salt or oil added (We usually use Eastwind Creamy Almond Butter, but the store didn't have it this time, so we used Maranatha's Almond Butter)

~1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (We used Simply Organic brand)

~1/3 of a 71% Dark Chocolate bar, about 8 squares (We used Equal Exchange Organic Very Dark Chocolate)

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 F.

Step 1:
Soak apricots in water in a small bowl for a few minutes.
Place soaked apricots in a blender or food processor. Add vanilla extract, and process till blended and chopped up nicely. It will be like apricot paste!
Put the apricot "paste" back into the bowl.

Step 2:
Grind almonds in the food processor till chopped up finely. Place in a medium-sized bowl.

Step 3:
Grind graham crackers till crushed into graham cracker crumbs. Place in the bowl containing the almonds.

Step 4:
Mix graham cracker crumbs and almonds, then add the almond butter to bind the mixture together.
Place graham-almond mixture into a square baking pan and press down to make a crust.

Step 5:
Bake crust till slightly brown, about 3-4 minutes.

Step 6:
Place apricot paste on top of the crust and try to spread it over the whole area to make an apricot layer.

Step 7:
Bake 7-8 minutes.

Step 8:
Melt chocolate. We just put it in the microwave for a few seconds. Make sure to stir and check on the chocolate periodically so it doesn't burn. Just heat till melted throughout.

Step 9:
When the apricot bars are done baking, drizzle the melted chocolate over it to your liking.Step 10:
Let the bars cool in the fridge for a while before slicing them. The first bar you'll cut will crumble just because it would be difficult to get it out of the pan. Actually, as time passes, the crust gets less dry/crumbly and holds together better.

Note: This was our first attempt at these bars, so we may make some adjustments next time to make the crust less crumbly (agave?) or add more apricot layer. You could even sprinkle some shredded coconut on top. It still is very tasty and a nice & healthy treat!


Enjoy, LK Sisters