Recipe Review: Healthy Eat More Fudge Chocolate Bars

Resource: Chocolate Covered Katie: The Healthy Dessert Blog featuring Christal from Nutritionist in the Kitch

Ingredients:
1 cup pitted dates
1/2 cup almonds, unsalted
1/4 cup walnuts, unsalted
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ripe bananas
4 tbsp natural almond butter
1/4 cup more unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tbsp unpasteurized honey or agave

Directions:
Put dates in a bowl with warm water, allow dates to soak for 30 minutes, then drain. Mix together dates, almonds, walnuts, and 1/4 cup cocoa powder in a food processor until well blended. Spread mixture in a 9×5 baking pan (or an 8x8 is okay) until evenly distributed, and press down gently with a spoon. Mix together bananas, almond butter, honey, and other 1/4 cup cocoa powder in the food processor until well blended. Spread mixture over bottom layer until evenly distributed. Place in freezer for 30 minutes. Cut into 16 squares. Re-freeze whatever you don’t eat, and enjoy at another time!

Prep Time:
Measuring the actual ingredients and putting them in the food processor takes all of 5 minutes! The only longer prep part was letting the dates soak for 30 minutes so I did that first then prepared and measured everything else while I waited.

Ingredients Overview:
The list of ingredients for this recipe is nothing out of the ordinary which makes it easy to find when searching at the grocery store, that’s if you don’t already have everything at home.  I personally had everything I needed which made organizing the ingredients that much easier.

Kitchen Tools Overview:
As with the Overnight Strawberry Chia Pudding, a food processor is required.  I wouldn’t recommend trying this one in a blender unless it can reach high speeds because you do need the nuts and dates to become ground up enough.  I can’t stress enough how integral a food processor is for your kitchen!

Ease of Recipe (1-5 ranking, 1 most difficult, 5 most simplistic):
5/5.  No cutting or chopping required.  If you can peel a banana then you can make this recipe.  Throw everything in the food processor and press the button.  However, be aware to remove the pits from the dates beforehand as that can be a step easily missed.

Flavour Review:
This is definitely a healthy alternative to a typical brownie.  Just based off of the ingredients list alone you can see that everything mixed in are all much better alternatives to how people traditionally get their fix for sweets.  The base layer is crunchy with the almonds, walnuts, and dates but I enjoyed the texture.  The top half tasted like a smoothie to me with the mixture of banana and almond butter which was delicious.  The banana has a strong flavour so I found when I took a bit I tasted that more than a chocolatey flavour.  The sweet flavours definitely satisfy my needs when I am in need of just a small treat!

Recommendation:
I thought I would test this recipe out because it was all over my Facebook newsfeed last week with people sharing it on their own pages and with friends.  So I thought, why not?! I was not disappointed. Again, anyone can do this recipe.  No baking just freezing so you can’t leave it too long and forget about it. It is an easy dessert that you can whip up even during the week to have a little taste of sweetness when you come home. My only critique is that I found it difficult to cut as the top layer was still quite soft even after freezing. It all goes to the same place in the end and tastes the same, but mine maybe weren’t as aesthetically pleasing. Enjoy!

Rachel's Tip:
I placed parchment paper down before placing the two layers into the pan.  Saves on the cleaning after and it helps for cutting by simply lifting it out of the pan and using a cutting board.