I love real dark chocolate, the kind without dairy or sugar, that you can make yourself from cacao paste (chunks of raw cacao), or pure cacao powder. And I love pistachios, so I wanted to combine them and see what I could create. Well, this one is a winner. I’m an athlete, so I love to add Whole Body Collagen, a vegan protein powder, creatine, and extra fiber so that it’s literally a power bar that tastes like a candy bar. Feel free to play with the Optional ingredients I add below. I have a trick for making the bitter raw cacao taste like candy, without any added calories, funny aftertastes, insulin spikes, or synthetic sweeteners. I use BochaSweet. It’s my go-to for sugar substitutions. It’s made from kombucha squash and is a 1:1 substitute for regular sugar. I prefer the powdered version as I find it melts easier.
I’m an intuitive baker, and I’m training you to be too. It’s not about perfection; it’s about practice and play. I hardly measure things and go by feel, but this is difficult to teach. Please be patient with me on this recipe, as I’m guessing on my cacao measurements as I did not weigh out the cacao, rather eye’d it.
Chocolate Pistachio Nut Bar
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups of pitted dates or approximately 30 dates depends on size.
- 1 ½ cups shelled pistachios, salted preferred.
- 12 oz of raw organic cacao paste or 1 cup pure organic cacao powder (depends how thick you’d like the chocolate topping to be. Use your eyes to estimate what you need and add more cacao and a little cacao butter as needed.
- 4 oz raw cacao butter, if using cacao powder instead of paste, then you’ll need more like 6 oz
- 2 heaping tablespoons of almond or macadamia nut butter
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup powdered BochaSweet, alternative sweetener (calorie and sugar free) or to taste depending on how sweet you like it. Or coconut or date sugar (use ¾ cup)
- Sea salt, I love black sea salt from Hawaii for this, but any sea salt will do
Instructions
Bar Base
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In a food processor, make date paste by adding all the pitted dates and blending until it makes a large ball. I store my dates in the refrigerator, warm dates blend better so let them become room temperature on the counter prior to making the recipe. Then separate the ball into pieces and add your pistachios. Blend well, pulsing as needed, and scraping sides as needed. Add the 2 heaping tablespoons of nut butter and all your optional powders listed above and blend well again. You are looking for a consistency that will stick together well without any large nuts, it will be like a crumble but presses together well. Add more nut butter as needed.
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Line a rectangular glass baking dish with parchment paper and add the bar base, pressing down firmly, creating a solid base layer, place in the refrigerator while you make the chocolate layer.
Chocolate Layer
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Ideally, in a double boiler, add your cacao paste (or powder) and cacao butter. If you don’t have a double boiler, don’t worry, just keep the pot on very low heat, stirring often and don’t allow it to bubble and burn.
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After it’s melted add the vanilla and bochasweet or coconut sugar and blend with an immersion or hand blender, until the sugar is melted and incorporated.
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Pour over the bar base in your rectangular glass baking dish, spreading evenly.
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Evenly sprinkle sea salt over the top and refrigerate until firm, approximately 1 hour.
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Store in refrigerator, allow to remain on counter for 5 minutes before serving, to allow it to warm up a bit, this allows the flavors to emerge.
Recipe Notes
*Whole Body Collagen powder or any collagen of your liking. I prefer unflavored
*Shark Cartilage powder (great for joints)
*Pure Pea Protein of some kind or other protein powder of your liking. I prefer a vanilla or unflavored version.
*Creatine: I like to add 10 grams
*Colostrum powder, ethically sourced so the baby calves get their share before more is taken
