As the kids are heading back to school tomorrow, I thought I’d make some home made snacks from dried fruit. We have bought the Naked brand before, they are yummy, and a little pricey, so when we get the chance to make our own version at home, its always a good idea! The other major plus is that I know exactly what goes into them. Which is especially important as my middle son has nut allergies, and if the kids are taking food into school, we also can’t use nuts in the food.
So here is our own home made recipe … it changes every time but the main ingredient that is crucial to make the mixture stick together, is dried dates, and we also always use pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds (as a nut replacement). Then the rest, is up to you – today we used figs, cranberries, and mango, along with the normal dates, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Then you literally chuck them all the in blender! I think maybe adding too many of the ingredients all at once in the blender, combined with adding the figs, made the blender slow right down, and potentially burn out – so do be careful!
Once the blender turns the fruit sticky and broken into small pieces, thats it! Its ready to roll! You can make little fruit bars, or balls, we chose to make fruity balls today, as I thought it would be easier for the kids to manage as a playground snack, but really, its up to you. I then rolled and pressed in desiccated coconut around the outside – I think that makes the mixture looks visually more appealing and adds another yummy flavour!
If you do make some, let me know how you get on in the comments below, and the combinations of fruit / seeds that you used!
I’ve added the chocolate on these ones here – you can see that more coconut sticks onto them!
