Wholefood bars, I tried one, here you go…
See, I bought this magazine at the airport a few weeks ago. Nothing exceptional in that for now, you may think.
I was attracted by the beautiful display of simple ingredients cooked in a range of easy, tasty and good looking dishes. When I actually reached the sweet section, I was surprised to see a range of “wholefood bars”. You may recognise the magazine by now, it was Donna Hay’s 100th issue.
Baking being my natural inclination, I set to do one of the recipe in the issue. I settled on the raspberry coconut pannacotta bar. I can tell you there was no regret there!
The recipe can be found HERE with a number of tips.
Wholefood bars – the feedback on the making
- It was quite easy. For someone who is not often in the kitchen, I would say, it is achievable as the steps are simple enough and there is one action at the time.
- You may not have all the ingredients at home. No panic, sometimes you can allow to be creative. For example :
- I did not have fresh dates but package dates. It worked very well all the same, it was not overpowerly sweet nor did it taste too much like dates (which I am not the biggest fan).
- Similarly . I did not have coconut oil (I do now, it may take me years to use it, time will tell) , coconut oil doesn’t really have more health benefit than other oils but it has a textural benefit by solidifying a low temperature. So, for the biscuit, I used a peanut oil and for the raspberry mix, I used cocoa butter.
- It is a stage process, like all layering sweet creation.
- Invite friends over or bring to a picnic! Even though we really liked this slice, the slice is quite filling.
- The dry-freeze decoration (as in the magasine) is hard to find and is purely decorative. Being on Scotland Island, getting in a boat, crossing to the mainland and then driving “to town” and dropping to the local fine food store or health food store was not an option for me.
- To cut the slice, make sure you have a narrow (can be tall) blade and wipe it between rows.
Verdict:
Will I try again? Yes, with enough people around to eat it. I have not tried to freeze the slice I made to see if it is an option.
Is it a bit fancy all these ingredients? The ingredients in the recipe I did are all top market ingredients, so not low-cost. I did not do the slice to test its health benefits. It is worth noting that while dates are quite nutritious and that coconut oil health benefit are not demonstrated. As the quantities remain small, there is nothing unreasonable.
Does it keep? We kept ours for 2-3 days. As you can see on the photos taken two days after making (could not find the camera), the white top will soon be influenced by the underlying raspberry . The colour will start to come through. Nothing
