Snacks

Serves: 6
Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 25 mins Total time: 30 mins

Snack Jacks…?! You know flapjacks, don’t you? Those sickly sweet oat bars drenched in cane sugar or caramelly treacle. Thought so ????

Well, since flapjacks are about as anti-candida food as a slap in the face, I thought I’d simply make a snack bar that contains just as many oats as a flapjack, just without the sugar in it.

Flap- jack; Snack- jack – Got it? ????

Ok, perhaps not a major feat in wordsmithery – but definitely noteworthy on the sugar free snacks market.

Because these delectable healthy bars are not only refined sugar free, they are also gluten – and dairy free and also vegan.

Did I mention that they also taste nice ;-o

Well they do. Ok, I admit it, compared with your normal chocolatey snack bar they taste a bit bland. And they can get a bit crumbly in places.

But as far as sugar free snacks go this is a revelation in my opinion, especially since they are filling and comforting.

Ingredients

• 10 heaped Tbsp gluten free oats
• 10 heaped Tbsp puffed rice (unsweetened)
• 5 Tbsp ground almonds
• pinch of cinnamon or vanilla
• unsweetened almond milk (about half a cup)
• 2 heaped Tbsp coconut oil
• 3 heaped Tbsp chopped or flaked almonds
• 2 handfuls of sunflower seeds
• 1 small apple (leave out during stage 2,3 on the candida diet)
• ½ pear (leave out during stage 2,3 on the candida diet)
• 1 tsp apple & pear fruit spread (leave out during stage 2,3 on the candida diet)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas 4 with a 9″x 13″/23cm x 33cm tin
• Chop the fruit into small pieces.
• Melt the coconut butter in a small pot. Mix all the dry ingredients in with the coconut oil.
• Add enough almond milk to form a sticky dough, a bit stickier than oatmeal porridge consistency.
• Take the baking tin out of the oven, line with baking paper and spread your sticky oaty dough over it. Make a square shape if possible.
• Bake at for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.Cool on a cooling rack.

Makes 6 slices. Freezes well.

The apple pieces make the slices moist and the sweet pear takes away any tartness of the apple, giving the snack jacks a lovely mild flavour.

With a sticky, chewy, oaty filling, these bars make a fabulous addition to your smoothie (tada!) or just eaten on their own.

It’s also a great way to use up excess almond pulp from making almond milk, if you have any.

Another good thing about these refined sugar free snack bars is that they freeze well (and as it turns out they defrost in no time in the slow cooker/ crockpot – my latest Cooking Trickery, hah!)

Toasting them from frozen brought less success, as the outer side was hot and crisp, whereas the center stayed half frozen, uhm, not so nice.

Handled with a little more patience and foresight by taking the snack jacks out of the freezer in the morning – this could have easily been remedied so they had been thawed before toasting…

Never mind, my slow cooked snack jacks were just divine.

If anything, they tasted more succulent the next day ?

They are too moist to be kept in a jar though (they would quickly get moldy). So freeze whatever you have left over – waawawaaa, you have leftovers?!! ????

If you can eat sugar without problem and don’t have to fear candida, then you might want to add a little more sweetness, for instance agave or coconut sugar. A Candida Diet friendly alternative would be stevia.

And if you’re after a crunchier texture spread the dough thinner and use more coconut butter instead of the almond milk.

Be aware though that the coconut butter naturally softens at room temperature, so it’s best to keep your Snack Jacks where it’s a bit chilled.

Enjoy ????