Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 486 kcal | 138 kcal |
| Protein | 9.8 g | 2.8 g |
| Fat | 42 g | 11.9 g |
| saturated | 3.7 g | 1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 18 g | 5.1 g |
| sugars | 13.8 g | 3.9 g |
| Fibre | 8.6 g | 2.4 g |
| Sodium | 2 mg | 1 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
- 3 cups pecans
- 3 cups walnuts
- 1 1/2 cups almond meal
- 1.3 kg blueberries
Instructions
- Grind the pecans and walnuts in short bursts and stop while there is still texture in them. Both are oily, and a few seconds too many turns them into nut butter that will never hold as a bar.
- Tip the ground nuts into a bowl, then blend the blueberries with the almond meal on their own. The berries have to break down completely, which takes longer than the nuts can survive.
- Add water a spoonful at a time and stop as soon as it moves. Blueberries are already mostly water, and every extra spoonful is another stretch on the machine.
- Fold the berry puree into the ground nuts with a spatula rather than going back to the processor. You want streaks of nut and streaks of fruit, because a bar blended to one paste has one texture from end to end.
- Press the mixture onto a lined tray at 2.5 cm, squaring the edges off with the flat of a knife. A ragged edge dries into a hard rim that shatters when you cut the bars.
- Dehydrate at 60 °C for 20 hours, and turn the whole slab over once the top is firm enough to lift. This slab is deep, and the face against the tray sees almost no air until you flip it.
- It is done when the surface is dry to the touch and a cut edge is tacky without smearing. These are meant to stay chewy, so a bar that snaps has been left on too long.
- Cut the slab while it is still slightly warm, pressing a long knife straight down. Sawing drags the fruit and pulls the nuts out of the cut face.
- Wrap the bars individually and keep them in the fridge for a fortnight, or freeze them for three months. There is real fruit moisture left in these by design, which is exactly why they are not a cupboard item.
