Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 554 kcal | 157 kcal |
| Protein | 17.8 g | 5 g |
| Fat | 43.7 g | 12.4 g |
| saturated | 5.1 g | 1.4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 21.1 g | 6 g |
| sugars | 16.1 g | 4.6 g |
| Fibre | 11.6 g | 3.3 g |
| Sodium | 8 mg | 2 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups cashews, soaked for 1 hour
- 1 1/2 cups pecans, soaked for 1 hour
- 8 1/4 cups ground almonds
- 500 g apples (about 3 medium), peeled, cored and chopped
- 1 pear, peeled, cored and chopped
- 1 1/2 cups almond butter
- 2 cups flax seed
- 3/4 cup honey
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Drain the soaked cashews and pecans and dry them on a towel. The soak was to soften them; carrying the soaking water into six cups of ground almond only makes a wetter dough.
- Pulse the cashews and pecans to crumbs, not to butter. A crumb gives this the sandy break a digestive biscuit has, where a butter gives you a chewy slab.
- Stir those crumbs into the ground almonds in a separate bowl and set it aside. Tipping six cups of dry ingredients into a processor already full of fruit will stall most machines.
- Blend the apples, pear, almond butter, flax, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt into a smooth wet base first. The flax has to be in contact with the fruit's liquid to do its binding work.
- Bring the two together by hand. The dough is ready when it holds a fingerprint and does not stick to a clean palm.
- Spread it to 6 mm right out to the edges of the tray. A thin edge and a thick middle is what gives you scorched-tasting corners and a soft centre in the same batch.
- Dehydrate at 46 °C for 7 hours, then cut the slab into squares and put it back in for 7 hours at 46 °C. These are not finished at that point — the first stretch sets the sheet and the crunch arrives in the hours after the cut.
- They are done when a square snaps in half cleanly and the broken edge is the same colour all the way through. A darker damp line through the middle means keep going, and at this low a setting a long run does no harm.
- Let them go cold on a wire rack, then seal them into a tin for three weeks. There are a great many nut oils in here and they will taste flat before they ever go soft.
