My mum and dad always make me and my boyfriend a vegan hamper at christmas, this year some of the things we got were vegan mayo, soy parmasan, st dalfours jam (it's fruit sweetened and all natural ingredients, we got marmalade and black cherry - delish!), chocolate marzipan bars, nakd bars and 9 bars. I hadn't had the 9 bars before but they were really nice, I started buying them for myself, well today I realised they actually had honey in the ingredients list - no more 9 bars for me. But I thought, why can't I make my own? So, I set about an experiment in the kitchen, measuring as I went! I'm pretty pleased with this recipe and don't think I would change anything, it's not exactly the same but, the real 9 bars are chewier, I guess this could maybe be acheived by halving the caramel and adding some agave to the mix, anyway heres what you need for vegan 9 bars
Nut/seed mix
1/4 cup almonds
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds
1/2 cup mixed seeds (I used Tescos own brand which included pumpkin, sunflower and sesame)
1/2 cup musli mix (I used Tescos musli base without fruit but you could use a fruity one if you like) can sub more seeds or nuts
Caramel mix
1 cup light brown unrefined sugar
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Ganache topping
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup soy milk
Method
Put nut and seed mix (minus musli mix) in the oven at 220.
Whilst the nuts roast make the caramel by heating all the ingredients together, keep stirring it and watch it doesn't boil over.
Pour the nuts and seeds into the caramel, I then added a half cup of musli as it was too wet, you could just add more seeds but I kinda liked the musli in the finished product!
Leave this to set in the fridge, I put it in a silicon loaf tin.
Whilst it's cooling make the ganache by heating the soy milk to boiling and adding the chocolate chips off the heat, stir vigarously, I would have added a touch more vanilla here but I've run out :(
Leave this yummy mixture in the fridge to set for as long as you can wait!
Posts
I hear you with these bars always containing honey! I don't know the 9 bars but most bars in general, I mean. And I think that's an ingredient that could be eliminated with no problem, so I don't know why they insist on including it in those bars...
ReplyDeleteI've also thought of making my own at some point but never got round to it! Your bar here looks very tasty! I just need to omit the nuts and I'm good to go for cereal bars! Thanks for the recipe! :)
Why would they add honey to things that don't need it? I don't understand these silly companies! YAY for making your own honey-free bars!
ReplyDeleteHey Laura! Thanks so much for visiting my blog; yours looks super-fun :o). The bars look yummy... especially the topping ;o)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments :) it does annoy me when manufacturers add silly ingredients, like milk or whey as the very last ingredient!! grr
ReplyDeleteLoveliebutterfly - I'm sure the bars would work well without nuts, there weren't any in the original bars I just fancied adding some!