By Derek Henry, Holistic Health Coach for Healing the Body
We love our desserts, don’t we? The magic combination of ingredients creates a mouth watering masterpiece that doesn’t stand a chance surviving longer than a few days. However, desserts have become a bit unhealthy, and have added more fat to your belly than nutrition. Not so anymore, with these decadent bliss bars (aka healthy nanaimo bars) that provide nutrition without busting out a new notch on your belt.
Purpose
It’s not easy to make a sweet and healthy snack without compromising your health. These bliss bars are an excellent way to satisfy your sweet tooth, while benefiting from healthy fats, antioxidants, magnesium, and trace minerals.
Also known as ‘healthy nanaimo bars’, these little delights are as healthy as you can get with a dessert this decadent. Well worth the extra time to craft them, even though they tend to go down a lot faster. 
Equipment Required
- Food processor
- Good quality blender
Ingredients
Base:
- 1 1/2 cups dried shredded coconut
- 1 cup brazil nuts
- 1/4 cups pitted dates
- 1/3 cups coconut sugar, finely ground
- 3 tbsp melted coconut cream
- 1 tbsp cacao powder
- 3 tbsp water
- 1/4 tsp salt
Vanilla Cream Centre:
- 1 1/4 cups cashews, soaked(6hrs)
- 1/4 cups cacao butter, melted
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp melted coconut cream
- 1/4 tsp vanilla powder pinch salt
Chocolate:
- 1/2 cups coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cups cacao powder
- 1/4 cups honey
- 2 tbsp cacao butter melted
Directions
- Base: Place brazil nuts, dates, cacao powder and salt in food processor, process until fine. Place in mixing bowl with remaining base ingredients. Mix thoroughly with hands or wooden spoon.
- Grease bottom of 8″ square pan with coconut oil and press base firmly into pan forming and even layer. Place in fridge to set while preparing vanilla cream.
- Vanilla Cream: Place cream ingredients in high speed blender, blend until smooth. You may need to stop and scrape the sides with a rubber spatula a few times.
- Pour vanilla cream over base layer. Spread evenly using rubber spatula. Return pan to fridge and let set for 1+ hour or until vanilla cream has hardened.
- Chocolate Topping: Place chocolate ingredients in blender, blend gently on low until smooth. This can also be done in a bowl using a whisk.
- Pour chocolate over middle layer. Tilt pan from side to side to spread evenly. Return pan to fridge and let set for 30 minutes or until chocolate is hard.
Consumption
- Try not to eat all in one sitting.
*Image of “Nanaimo Bar” via Jameson Fink/Flickr/CC BY
