Salted Chocolate, Nut and Rice Crisp Bars (DIY 'Kind' Bars)

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I am a chocoholic....  The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, right? lol... I love chocolate in pretty much any form but there is nothing more heavenly to me than a crunchy, salty, chewy and slightly sweet treat - especially one that is dipped in dark chocolate.  I found this perfect combination in the Sea Salt & Chocolate 'Kind' bars  - they are amazing! But they are also so expensive!  And TINY! The cheapest I can find them online is $16.50 for a box of 12 and then I have to order $50 worth in order to get free shipping.  Besides, while I really have no problem with most of their ingredients, I'm not thrilled with the sound of 'glucose syrup' - technically 'glucose syrup' could be any syrup made from a starch, but I'm pretty sure to keep costs down it's probably corn syrup, which is probably also why they are relatively elusive as to what kind of 'glucose' they're using - or it's a mix.  Either way, I don't like not knowing for sure, so I figured I would try to make my own...

These bars are honestly the best I've ever had and they are pretty easy to make for the most part.

Salted Chocolate, Nut and Rice Crisp Bars

Salted Chocolate, Nut and Rice Crisp BarsIngredients:

Ingredients:

3.5 Cups 'Large' Nuts - I used a mixture of Raw Almonds and Hazelnuts
3 Cups 'Little Nuts & Seeds' - I used a mixture of chopped walnuts, pepitas, sunflower seeds - all raw
2 Cups Brown Rice Crisps - I used Whole Foods 365 brand unsweetened Brown Rice Crisp Cereal
4 Scoops of Shakeology Fiber Boost (or finely ground flax seed meal)
3 Teaspoons Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste
3/4 Cup Honey
3/4 Cup Brown Rice Syrup
1/2 Cup Maple Syrup
GOOD salt for sprinkling - Sea Salt, Himalayan Salt or something equivalent, preferably a medium to course grind.
1/2-3/4 Bag of Dark Chocolate Chips (60% cacao or greater)
1-2 Tblspoons Coconut oil

Method:

You will need two baking pans for this - I used two 9x13 inch baking sheets with a lip and they were the perfect size for this amount of ingredients.

Heat the oven to 350 F, place the large nut mixture on one pan and the little nut mixture on another pan. Dry roast the nuts for about 10 -15 minutes, stirring frequently, until they're lightly browned and looking a bit 'oily' - the large nuts will take longer than the smaller nuts so that's why I recommend splitting the two across different pans.






Let the nuts/seeds cool and then combine in a large heat-safe bowl (glass, stainless, ceramic) and then toss to coat with the Shakeology fiber/flax meal until it's evenly combined and coated. Spray the pans with some cooking spray to coat and set aside.










In a pot on the stove heat the honey, Vanilla, brown rice syrup and maple syrup - you're going to need a thermometer - preferable a candy thermometer to get this to the right consistency. Slowly bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently, until the mix becomes viscous and the temperature reaches 'soft ball' stage on the thermometer - this is approximately 235-245 F (A manual test if you don't have a good thermometer is to drip some syrup into cold water - the syrup should easily form a ball in the water but will flatten out when removed).

NOTE: I recommend using a pot that is at least 3-4 times larger than is necessary to contain the volume of your liquid mixture - once it starts to boil it will expand a great deal and you will want the extra space to prevent a boil over.

Once the syrup has reached the proper consistency, immediately pour it out over the nut mixture and quickly and thoroughly stir to ensure everything is evenly coated with syrup. Pour the mixture into the two greased pans and using the back of a spatula or greased hands, press the mixture firmly and evenly into the pans. Allow this to cool for about 15-20 minutes. You want it to be cool enough to stay together but still warm enough to slice easily with a knife.

When cooled, flip each pan over onto a cutting board and cut into bars - using the recipe above and the 9x13 pans, I got exactly 32 bars out of this recipe - so 16 per pan. If you're not a chocoholic like myself, you can simply sprinkle these with a bit of salt and call it a day - if you want some chocolate on yours, continue on...




Line a large baking sheet with wax paper. In 4-cup pyrex bowl (or any heat-safe bowl that has a wide enough bottom to dip the bars), melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil over low heat, stirring frequently. There are a few different ways to do this - you can put the bowl in the microwave for 20-30 second intervals use a double-boiler method or use Jennifer's lazy method, which is just place the pyrex on my cooktop over the lowest heat setting and whisk frequently until it's all melted and smooth. :)

Pop bars into the fridge for 10-15 minutes to set quickly

Once you've got the chocolate to a smooth fluid consistency, dip the bottom of each bar to coat with chocolate and then place onto the wax paper. Any chocolate left over can be drizzled with a spoon over the tops of the bars. Sprinkle with your salt and then allow to cool. If you pop them into the fridge they will be ready in about 10-15 minutes. Store in an airtight container.  Makes approximately 32 servings.