Primal Energy Bar Redux: Making a Better Bar
When you talk, we listen. You loved the Primal Energy Bar recipe we featured in September, but the comment section lit up with suggestions about how to modify and improve the recipe.
Specifically, you guys wanted to up the protein ante, with commenter Paul recommending adding a few scoops of protein powder, and Anna offering some great suggestions for firming up what was originally a pretty fragile bar (because, lets face it, eating your protein bar with a spoon kind of defeats the purpose!)
So with that, we went to our unofficial Mark’s Daily Apple kitchen to put it to the test! There were a couple of missteps (and even one small toasting incident that could have constituted a fire!) but we think we’ve finally nailed it.
The following is the new and improved official Mark’s Daily Apple Primal Energy Bar:
Primal Energy Bar Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup pecans
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup almond butter (although cashew, hazelnut, walnut and even pumpkin butters will work well too!)
1/4 cup coconut oil (check your local health food store)
1/4 cup almond meal (simply pulse approximately 1/4 cup of almonds until it creates a coarse flour)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp of raw honey (although, this is really kind of optional because the egg will help hold the mixture together)
1/2 cup unsweetened whey protein powder (or 60g)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries or blueberries
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut to sprinkle on top
Method:
- On a cookie sheet, toast nuts and shredded coconut until golden brown. In order for them to cook evenly, you need to shake up the tray at least once during cooking…trust us!
- Once toasted, pour mixture into a food processor and pulse until nuts are chopped and the mixture becomes coarsely ground (sort of the consistency of bread crumbs).
- In a mixing bowl, melt coconut oil and almond butter (about 30 seconds). Remove from microwave and stir until smooth.
- Add vanilla extract, honey and sea salt. Mix thoroughly.
- Fold in nut mixture, almond meal and protein powder until mixed thoroughly.
- Add whole egg and mix thoroughly.
- Fold in blueberries/cranberries.
- Press mixture into an 8 by 8 loaf pan (a modification that we made to keep everything crisper and help the bars to hold together).
- Cook in a preheated oven at 325 degrees for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven, sprinkle a ¼ cup of shredded coconut on top and place under broiler until top begins to brown.
- Let cool for 10-15 minutes. Cut into 12 pieces/bars.
- Enjoy or stack on wax paper/parchment and store in an airtight container.
Note: You can also add dark chocolate chips instead of the cranberries/blueberries (available at Whole Foods or health food store). If you add the chips while the mixing bowl is warm (from the coconut oil/almond butter mixture), they will melt into the mixture and you will have yourself a chocolate primal bar. Alternatively, you can just let the mix cool, then add the chips, then refrigerate the pan to get chocolate chip primal bars. The bars stick together pretty well without being cooked.
Nutrition Information:
Nutrition for 1/12 of the batch. Nutritional breakdown courtesy of FitDay.com:
Calories: 184
Fat: 15.4 grams
Carbohydrates: 6.4 grams
Protein: 7.5 grams
And, for those of you who feared they would eat the whole pan… the total nutritional breakdown for the whole darn lot!
Calories: 2,206
Fat: 184.3 grams
Carbohydrates: 77.2 grams
Protein: 90.1 grams
That’s 1659 calories from fat, 309 calories from carbs and 360 calories from protein. Or 72% fat, 14% carbs and 16% protein. A pretty decent Primal balance.
Give ‘em a try and let everyone know what you think in the comment boards!
Further Reading:
10 Delicious DIY Salad Dressings
Subscribe to Mark’s Daily Apple feeds
Posted By: Worker Bee
Lol! Mark, you weren’t joking. We ended up with almost exactly the same thing independently. Good stuff. Primal minds think alike? Thank you again for re-aligning my perception.
The SoG
I missed the first recipe for these so I’m stoked you put up a new and improved one. I’m definitely going to be making these for those meals on the go.
Wow – sounds pretty easy and very delicious. Definitely want to try this one. Thanks!
Can’t wait to try this. Protein bars are a regular part of my diet, but I’d much rather eat something that tastes like almonds than cardboard.
Look great! Can’t wait to give them a try!
And finally, a Primal use for bread crumbs! As a comparison for sizes to grind your nuts and coconut too.
What are some good options for unsweetened protein powders?
I made 3 batches of the originals… loved ‘em. The only problem I had was that I couldn’t stop eating them!
Past several months i’ve been eating alot of blackberries every day. I think blackberries would go great in this recipe, too.
This recipe is great, i love it!
This looks delicious. A question about measurements – you say that for 1/4 c almond meal you can grind 1/4 c almonds – wouldn’t 1/4 c almonds yield a smaller volume of almond meal? Just making sure the 1/4 cup refers to post-grinding. Thanks!
Yup, looks tasty – Good idea adding the protein powder – that’ll really amp up the recovery -
surplusj – You’re right. It won’t be one for one. It refers to post-grinding. Changes made…
Cheers!
Mmmm. Looks very tasty and relatively simple to make.
Hi Mark.
Thanks for the recipe. One question: is the count given for Net carbs or total carbs? If total, do you know the fiber count?
Mark,
When number crunching in FitDay did you use the measurements as shown, or in grams? I’m becoming a gram-measure nazi, to make sure my “1/2c oats, 40g” isn’t really 57g, et cetera.
If you’d like to lambast me for eating oats and not going fully Primal, feel free. My oats and I can handle it.
It is definitely a good idea to get unsweetened shredded coconut. One time I bought a big bag, and lo and behold it was the sweetest, tastiest thing I ever bought. I was looking at the ingredients after chugging down most of the bag and found it was loaded with added sugar. A real D’oh moment if I may say so.
I made the originals and loved them but they weren’t too firm unless they were straight out of the fridge.
Mark,
Do you think they will ship well? I am heading to Iraq in three weeks and I would love for my wife to send some in a care package. I will be eating as primal as possible there but it will be tough.
Thanks for all the good advice and I plan on reading the blog everyday like I do now, even though I can’t make the meals or control much of what I eat.
Kevin
Kevin,
Good luck brutha! Be safe.
I just made a batch. When baking, a lot of oil came to the top and made it look like it wasn’t cooking properly. I drained off the off, at least a quarter cup, and continued baking — it took about 15 minutes today. The only change I made to th recipe is I used walnut butter rather than almost butter.
I just made some (slightly altered the recipe) and oil came to the top of mine too… I think that’s normal. If you let it cool for 20 minutes or so, the oil soaks back in making them totally moist and yummy.
I would have to change out the pecans (disgusting) and if you aren’t careful just about every whey protein is chalked full of sucralose which destroy’s my stomach anyways.
While a good idea, I will stick to jerky and nuts. Much easier to make.
get dr mercolas pro optimal whey or mircle whey its grass fed and tastes really good. all flavors except the mircle whey – strawberry are great
What would one use if they did not have a micro wave? I moved about three years ago and decided to leave my micro wave and not get a new one. Have not missed it till now.
Can’t wait to try these.
Lessee…how about a stove? Fire? Hot pavement? Magnifying glass under the sun?
Any ideas where to get dried blueberries or cranberries that don’t have added sugar? I checked the label on both at the store and was surprised to find they were sweetened with cane sugar (or cane juice can’t remember). I had to look far and wide to find unsweetened shredded coconut. It ain’t easy being primal in a added sugar and everything contains grain products world!
no idea… that’s why I’m desperate for a food dehydrator.
Hello,
You can find dried fruit with no added sugars (or anything else for that matter) from justtomatoes.com
They make all types of dried fruits and vegetables and don’t add any oils or sugars. I’ve found them at my local Whole Foods too (the website has a store locator too)
Hope this helps
I think most co-op health food stores should have unsweetened cranberries and unsweetened coconut in their bulk items area…
Oh, and also check out Bob’s Red Mill for unsweetened coconut!
http://www.bobsredmill.com/shredded-coconut.html
If you are up for a little extra work, I recommend buying baby thai coconuts (about $1 to $2 each yeilding 8 to 12 oz water and 3/4 to 1 cup chopped meat)for both fresh coconut water (delicious!) and your raw, unsweetened coconut meat. For the easiest way to open and retrieve the water and meat see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THEdI_gSNQ4
Once opened, drain off the coconut water, get a spoon and scrape out the meat. Place meat in food processor to finely chop. If you want, place chopped raw coconut meat into a non-stick pan over med-high heat, stir frequently and it will lightly toast.
Dave,
I have not been able to find unsweetened cranberries (the only company that sells them online has a 4 pound minimum!). Believe me, I have looked pretty thoroughly.
As for blueberries, you can find them most anywhere freeze dried. I order mine by the can online from a company called Honeyville Grain (lol I know grain in the name.. ironic right?). They have good almond flour too.
The SoG
Steve,
Re: Unsweetened protein powders.
I actually blogged about this yesterday if you want to check it out. http://trainsmarteatright.blogspot.com/2009/01/are-you-getting-enough.html
Andrea – We just used the FitDay volume measurements. If we used 1/2 cup I put 1/2 cup into FitDay. I hope that answers your question.
Whats the protein count on this if you opt to not use the unsweetened whey powder, or what is a good substitute?
I have no idea where to get unsweetened whey, except for the website above, and I really want to make these tomorrow haha I will probably more than likely order a jug of the custom true protein stuff, but I dont want to wait x amount of buisness days to make it when I can go get all the ingredients besides that on my way home from work tomorrow.
I made them! With modifications as people are wont to do, of course…
Here are my ingredients:
80g toasted ground almonds
50g toasted chopped walnuts
30g toasted ground coconut
50g almond butter
2tsp vanilla
60g whey (mix of choc and plain)
2 omega3 eggs
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
28g freeze dried blueberries
40g chopped dark chocolate
~10 drops liquid stevia
What happened: I followed instructions but only chopped walnuts instead of grinding. Mixing with the extra egg was fine, since I omitted the coconut oil (was afraid of the extra runoff reported above).
What went wrong: oven temp a shade too high (340), and I cooked for about 14 min – too long!
Ended up tasty but a little dry – I would fix the baking time and probably use 3 omega egg yolks instead of 2 whole eggs – I know that egg whites toughen up batters with scary efficiency.
What went right – these taste good! I like the adding of some chocolate as a partial sub for the coconut oil. I would also add a little more stevia for some extra sweetness.
Good luck, ya’ll!
I made them yesterday. They were great but a little crumbly coming out of the pan. I think I’ll add an extra egg next time. I used Agave nectar instead of honey. I also used vanilla protein powder which was all I had on hand. I’ll definitely be making these again!
I added two eggs and a little more coconut and they crumbled less for me. I also think not toasting the nuts/coconut too much or not toasting them at all can help that. Oh and I added 1/4 c butter, heh. These are like cookies to me, have to try not to eat too many.
I made these today, I dont know what I did wrong, but they didnt turn out for me…Ill stick to jerky and trail mix…
Brandon,
If they were too tough (like mine), keep the baking time/temp to 10min and 325 and no more – you’ll be tempted to overbake which does even worse things with these bars than it does to brownies. Turns them into bricks!
If you think you might have overbaked a little, take them directly from the oven to the freezer or a snowbank outside to halt the cooking. On your counter it will keep cooking for at least 5 minutes as it starts to cool….
No, it was taste. Probably the whey powder I used. I tend to fail at primal baking. With the exception of meats, all I can really bake is primal banana bread. Im better at stovetop.
Primal banana bread sounds tasty…got the recipe on hand?