As many of you on the blogosphere are aware, Larabar recently released four new flavors of their raw fruit and nut bars. Of those four, I’ve only been able to find three, and only in one store in all of the New York City stores I’ve checked. So when I have a hankering for, say, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, it’s a bit inconvenient to have to take two trains and shell out quite a bit of cold hard cash for it. Especially since the ingredients in said bar are so simple: cashews, dates, chocolate chips, salt.
Already having all of these ingredients at home, I decided to make my own “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough” (the kind that won’t give you salmonella when you inevitably lap up the better part of a bowl), and added a little vanilla extract to give it that extra sugar cookie taste.
LVP’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls (Makes 6)
- 3/4 cup cashews
- 10 dates, pits removed
- 1/2 t vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 T chocolate chips
Combine dates and cashews and process until texture is uniform and tacky.
Pulse in vanilla and salt.
Add chocolate chips and pulse until they are just broken down but still large enough to distinguish from the rest of the “batter.”
I preferred to portion control these a bit, so instead of making 1.6 oz bars like the “real” Laras, I made bite-sized balls instead.
I like my cookie dough cold, so I’m storing these babies in the fridge…
….where unsuspecting housemates won’t know to look for them!
Great recipe – I think I might try these soon!
I am so going to be making those!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can’t wait to make ‘em for myself
Yum! Gotta love making your own balls. I feel the same way– I look at the ingredients list in lara bars and think, “Why am I BUYING these when I could so easily MAKE them?!”
I haven’t been able to find any of the new Lara bars!
but I’m definatly going to try these I LOVE cookie dough!
These look so yummy! And economical
I just bought bulk bin dates from WF, so perhaps I’ll give this recipe a try.
p.s. let’s all hang out when Leslie returns from Paradise (aka Maine)…
Those look so good! I haven’t seen any of the new flavors. We are the last to get everything down here.
Remember when Judy ate all our cookie dough in south hampton? You should make her some of these hehe.
Yum! Can’t wait to try, thanks for sharing!
watch out, i just may sneak into your freezer and pull these babies out!! wow way to make them with a Katie-style touch, at home and convenient for snacking! nice job!
I could get down with those balls.
And yeah shoot me your address so I can send you an Otarian card! Why not, right?
I did the same thing
Except I won’t ever know if they taste like “the real thing”! Oh, well.
<3 <3
Those sound so good. I haven’t tried any of the new Larabars yet. While I really like them, they’re so expensive. I’d rather just eat homemade trail mix. Plus, in the summertime I do more snacking on fresh fruit. But maybe I’ll try this recipe in the winter.
YUMMY!! So simple too! Thank for this recipe. I’ll definitely be hitting this up.
Thank you, thank you!! I used to buy logs of cookie dough and gnaw on those..going through half a huge one in a day. These are undoubtable much much healthier
ahh i love that you recreated them into balls! so perfect for mouth popping snacks hahaha
i hope you’re having SO much fun with ari!!! congrats on 3 years girl that’s so huge
can’t wait to hear all about it!!
I actually saw all the new flavors at the Garden of Eden on 14th st – I’m sure that other GoEs have them too. The peanut butter chip is prettttty delicious.
Delicious! Can’t wait to make these for my long car ride on Thursday:)
OH YUM!! I <3 the laras- i bet id love these! yay katie!!
Mmm…you can’t go wrong with cashews and chocolate chips. It’s a winning combo!
Haha I like that you hide them. Def nothign wrong with that
oh oh ohhhhhhhh…
(a) i need to try these new lara flaves
(b) in the meantime i could settle for these balls
(c) first i need a food processor
(d) can you arrange that?
(e) come visit in so cal, im pretty sure i could convince you and ari to move here in 10 minutes flat
I don’t think I’d have the patience for making the dough, but I would definitely be open to eating your delicious little creations.
Sweet, salty and awesome.
Where’s the wine though?!
Mmmm – looks so good! These make me want to buy a food processor
Must. Make. Immediately.
I LOVE that you made your own!!!!!!!!!!! Saves you lots of money and I bet yours are even BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yum!!!!!!!
How are you love?!! I hope all is well! xoxo
AMAZING. all i need is a good food processor
I really liked the idea of these! I actually posted your recipe (as well as another chocolate ball recipe like this) on my blog here: http://healthytodayhealthytomorrows.com/?p=775 I thought they were good, but I suggest maybe cutting out the vanilla next time. They seemed overly sweet. I think if you do that, then this recipe will be divine! Thanks for sharing!!
Great. You enclosed few thoughts seemlessly.