Saturday, August 19, 2006

Native Foods' Vegan Jungle Boogie Bars - our favorite!

We have boogied down with these bars for so long now. I said WE because I started baking these bars from The Native Foods Restaurant cookbook and then DH ended up baking them more often later on. They are actually DH's favorite and this time he actually made the bars pictured above and I decided to finally blog them. It has becoming his job to bake them and he does it very well.

The first time we tried the boogie bars was actually at the Native Foods restaurant (we are lucky to live only 10 minutes from the restaurant). They so good that I bought the cookbook because the recipe is in the book. Since then we make them at home often. Although, time to time, when we dine at Native Foods, DH still buys one to take home. I can't believe how addicted to boogie bars he is!

The bars are loaded with maple syrup. I think Canadians would love them. They are not cheap to make since real maple syrup is not cheap. Plus, I have all organic ingredients in our pantry that usually are not cheap. Other than maple syrup flavor, the bars are moistened with banana, oil, silken tofu, and shortening. I know, it is not low fat at all (I haven't yet de-fatenized it). Other ingredients are vegan chocolate chips, shredded dry coconuts, sliced almonds, flour, and rolled oats (sliced almonds for on top too). They resemble blondies but not quite like them. You just have to buy the book, bake them, judge them yourself and boogie down. But don't blame us if you'll get hooked. They can be stored in the freezer too (wrap them individually) but the best time to eat them is when they are freshly baked.

DH is an expert to bake these. His tips are to bake them longer (the recipe says 35- 40 minutes, he bakes them for 50 minutes), don't over mix when combining the liquid and dry ingredients (just fold them gently with a spatula), use a metal baking pan, and reduce the maple syrup about 1/3 cup.

7 comments:

Valentina said...

I'm very hungry now.. :-P

Dori said...

I like the almonds sprinkled on top!

julie hasson said...

Hi Debbie!

Yum!! I forgot how delicious these bars are. You're making me hungry!

I had these once at a booksigning that Tanya did, and she said that she used organic sugar instead of the maple syrup that time. So you can substitute it successfully in this recipe, which would make them less expensive to make. It says on the back of my maple syrup bottle that for each cup of sugar called for in a recipe, you can substitute 1 cup of maple syrup plus 1/4 tsp baking soda and decrease the other liquid by 3 tbsp. So you could probably just do this in reverse (without decreasing any baking soda in the recipe).

Harmonia said...

Looks awesome! :) I'm hungry for almonds now!

spiceislandvegan said...

Thanks all! Julie, thanks for the tip. We might replace half with sugar and half with maple syrup. We like the taste of the maple syrup too. But your idea is great! We also found a cheaper maple syrup in Costco but organic sugar is still cheaper.

KleoPatra said...

i love Native Foods ANYthing!!!

MeloMeals said...

I have this cookbook and will have to try this recipe. In the fall, I bake more.. and it's almost fall!!