Homemade Nakd Bars Recipe

My daughter recently demonstrated a penchant for Nakd bars to replace her toddler snacks. With their natural ingredients, we were happy with this, but the price made this a prohibitively expensive snack. However, I also thought that this meant they should be easy to make at home. I therefore consulted the ingredients lists, did a couple of calculations to turn percentages in weights and googled a little to see what other people's experiences with homemade nakdness was. This - very simple - recipe is the result.

Ingredients

• 180g Medjool dates (these will need to be pitted, but are juicier than 'standard' dates)
• 180g cashew nuts
• 65g raisins
• 25g 70% chocolate
• teaspoonful of vanilla extract

Method

1. Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and turn it on. The mixture will look quite dry and seem to thump a lot as it is processed, but leave the machine running and eventually it should come together in a solid ball. (This did take a few minutes, and my ancient food processor did start getting quite warm as the final mixture is quite stiff.)
2. Line a 1lb loaf tin with cling film. (There is time to do this while the food processor is processing.)
3. Put the mixture into the lined loaf tin and press down to form a flattened rectangle. (I found another loaf tin pressed down on the mixture was quite helpful with this.)
4. Fold the cling film over the top of the mixture and put in the fridge overnight to chill.
5. Unwrap the slab of fruity goodness and slice it into 12 (or fewer if you like larger portions) bars. I wrapped each bar in a square of greaseproof paper and twisted the ends. These then seem to keep quite happily in the fridge for a couple of weeks at least. (They were all eaten by this time, so they may last longer if you exercise greater self-control.)

I am confident that any of the other flavours can be made very simply by adapting the ingredients based on the percentages printed on the official products' wrappers. My choice of 180g for the dates was simply based on the packet size sold in the supermarket.