Trail bars with wattleseed and cacao nibs
I was recently blessed with an entire pantry worth of dry goods. A friend of mine is moving overseas and gave me the entire contents of her baking shelf. The spoils included loads of nuts and seeds. I’ve been wanting to send a parcel of homemade goodness to another friend, a nurse who’s helping fight Ebola in Sierra Leone. All the nuts and seeds made me think I should make her some trail bars. My new haul included loads of hazelnuts and macadamias. I wanted those to be the base of my bars. But there was puffed amaranth, sunflower seeds and loads of chia, so they were going into the mix too. I could top them with cacao nibs and ground watteseed. The flavour in wattleseed pairs beautifully with hazelnut and cacao. To me it seemed logical to pair Autsralia’s native Macadamia with the wattleseed.
In this post, I’ve included exactly what I put in my bars, but you can substitute some of your favourite nuts if you like, or drop ingredients you don’t have. You just want to make sure you have 400 grams of nuts and seeds.
Makes about 18 bars
| 200 | grams | brown sugar |
| 200 | grams | honey |
| 200 | grams | butter or coconut oil |
| 100 | grams | macadamias, sliced |
| 100 | grams | hazelnuts, sliced |
| 50 | grams | almonds, sliced |
| 50 | grams | sunflower seeds |
| 50 | grams | chia seeds |
| 25 | grams | puffed amaranth |
| 25 | grams | flax seeds |
| 50 | grams | rolled oats or quinoa flakes |
| 2 | tablespoons | cacao nibs |
| 1-2 | tablespoons | wattleseed |
Preheat the oven to 180oC and line a slice tin with baking paper.
Hot from the oven
Melt the brown sugar, honey and butter together in a saucepan till the sugar is just dissolved. Mix the seeds and nuts (not the cacao nibs and wattleseed) into the melted ingredients till well combined.
Tip the mixture into the lined tin, and spread it out evenly. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges are just golden. It will still be bubbling all over. Immediately sprinkle with the wattleseed and cacao nibs.
Let the mixture cool completely in the tin. Then cut them into bars and store in an airtight container.
