You know, we could have made chocolate cake but no, nope, we refused to listen to our gut, begging for the cocoa bean. Instead we ploughed on with our clean eat commitment and went for grain-free Sticky Nut Bars. *Insert fed up emoji face*

As we write this we’re picking at what we’ve now christened Sticky Nut Granola. What went wrong when we attempted one of Green Kitchen Stories amazing recipes? A couple of oversights on our behalf…

Oh, before we begin, can we talk about the pictures? In keeping with our beginners guide to food styling, we tried to glam up the disappointment with some Royal Doulton and a dollop of natural yogurt – there’s nothing a spoon of dairy can’t fix. Right? Err…

Ingredients:

GKS’s Sticky Nut Bars        STELLAR’s Sticky Nut Granola

10 fresh dates                                      12 dried-ish dates

2 tbsp water                                         4 tbsp water

⅔ cup organic peanut butter            ½ 170g jar almond butter

1 cup mixed nuts                                70g cashews, 70g almonds, 150g mixed nuts

¼ cup coconut flakes                         (didn’t have any!)

¼ cup sunflower seeds                      Handful of sunflower seeds

½ cup dried fruit                                180g raisin and berry mix

½ tsp salt                                              ½ tsp salt

OK, from the ingredient breakdown it looks obvious as to why our bars didn’t stick. But we did try to make do with what we had in the house, and honestly thought a few rogue coconut flakes or seeds wouldn’t make a huge difference – we learned that they very much do. If you want bars or granola, the methods’s the same, it’s a pinch to do and takes about 15 minutes in total.

Method:

1. Stir the dates, water and nut butter in a pot over low heat until the mixture is smooth-ish.

2. Chop all the nuts and dried fruit, then transfer to the pot.

3. Combine and coat all the ingredients.

4. Spread on a baking tray and chill in the fridge.

5. For Sticky Nut Bars cut into squares, for Sticky Nut Granola spoon into jars.

Bon appétit!

• grain free
• granola
• healty
• sticky nut bars
• sticky nut granola