We’ve outlined all the ingredients and directions for you to make the perfect Almond Cherry Pepita Bars. This dish qualifies as a Easy level recipe. It should take you about 1 hr 45 min to make this recipe. The Almond Cherry Pepita Bars recipe should make enough food for 12 servings.
You can add your own personal twist to this Almond Cherry Pepita Bars recipe, depending on your culture or family tradition. Don’t be scared to add other ingredients once you’ve gotten comfortable with the recipe! Please see below for a list of potential cookware items that might be necessary for this Almond Cherry Pepita Bars recipe.
Ingredients for Almond Cherry Pepita Bars
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 2 cups crispy brown rice cereal
- 1 cup raw pepitas
- 1 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup sweetened dried cherries
- 2/3 cup brown rice syrup
- 2 tablespoons almond butter
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt
Directions for Almond Cherry Pepita Bars
- Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F. Coat an 8-inch square glass baking dish with cooking spray. Line the bottom with a piece of parchment or waxed paper leaving a 4-inch overhang on two opposite sides and spray the paper with cooking spray.
- Put 1 cup of the rice cereal in a resealable plastic bag and crush to a fine powder with the back of the measuring cup. Combine the remaining 1 cup rice cereal, pepitas, almonds and cherries in a large bowl. Heat the rice syrup and almond butter in a small saucepan until warm and bubbling and remove from heat. Stir in the almond extract and salt, and pour into the nut mixture. Fold with a spatula until it is everything is moistened and well combined. Add the crushed rice cereal and continue to fold until evenly incorporated.
- Press the mixture very firmly and evenly into the prepared pan using the overhanging pieces of parchment to prevent sticking. Bake until beginning to brown, about 25 minutes. Cool 15 minutes on a wire rack, then press again to compact the mixture. Chill until firm but not completely set , about 45 minutes. Remove the block by the paper handles and invert onto a cutting board. Gently peel off the paper. Cut the block in half, then cut each half into 6 bars for 12 total. Refrigerate until fully set.
- Store the bars individually wrapped or layered between sheets of parchment or waxed paper in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. The bars will soften up and become chewy as they come to room temperature.
Cookware for your recipe
You will find below are cookware items that could be needed for this Almond Cherry Pepita Bars recipe or similar recipes. Feel free to skip to the next item if it doesn’t apply.
- Cooking pots
- Frying pan
- Steamers
- Colander
- Skillet
- Knives
- Cutting board
- Grater
- Saucepan
- Stockpot
- Spatula
- Tongs
- Measuring cups
- Wooden Spoon
Categories in this Recipe
- Healthy Breakfast
- Breakfast – Breakfast is the first meal of the day eaten after waking from the night’s sleep, in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night. There is a strong likelihood for one or more “typical”, or “traditional”, breakfast menus to exist in most places, but their composition varies widely from place to place, and has varied over time, so that globally a very wide range of preparations and ingredients are now associated with breakfast.
- Healthy – Health, according to the World Health Organization, is “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity”. A variety of definitions have been used for different purposes over time. Health can be promoted by encouraging healthful activities, such as regular physical exercise and adequate sleep, and by reducing or avoiding unhealthful activities or situations, such as smoking or excessive stress. Some factors affecting health are due to individual choices, such as whether to engage in a high-risk behavior, while others are due to structural causes, such as whether the society is arranged in a way that makes it easier or harder for people to get necessary healthcare services. Still other factors are beyond both individual and group choices, such as genetic disorders.
- Healthy Snack
- Cereal – A cereal is any grass cultivated (grown) for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. The term may also refer to the resulting grain itself (specifically “cereal grain”). Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food energy worldwide than any other type of crop and are therefore staple crops. Edible grains from other plant families, such as buckwheat, quinoa and chia, are referred to as pseudocereals.In their natural, unprocessed, whole grain form, cereals are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, oils, and protein. When processed by the removal of the bran, and germ, the remaining endosperm is mostly carbohydrate. In some developing countries, grain in the form of rice, wheat, millet, or maize constitutes a majority of daily sustenance. In developed countries, cereal consumption is moderate and varied but still substantial, primarily in the form of refined and processed grains.The word “cereal” is derived from Ceres, the Roman goddess of harvest and agriculture.
- Almond Recipes
- Nut Recipes
- Cherry – A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus Prunus, and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit).Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet Prunus avium and the sour Prunus cerasus. The name ‘cherry’ also refers to the cherry tree and its wood, and is sometimes applied to almonds and visually similar flowering trees in the genus Prunus, as in “ornamental cherry” or “cherry blossom”. Wild cherry may refer to any of the cherry species growing outside cultivation, although Prunus avium is often referred to specifically by the name “wild cherry” in the British Isles.
- Fruit – In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propagated using the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship that is the means for seed dispersal for the one group and nutrition for the other; in fact, humans and many animals have become dependent on fruits as a source of food. Consequently, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world’s agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings.In common language usage, “fruit” normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures (or produce) of plants that typically are sweet or sour and edible in the raw state, such as apples, bananas, grapes, lemons, oranges, and strawberries. In botanical usage, the term “fruit” also includes many structures that are not commonly called “fruits”, such as nuts, bean pods, corn kernels, tomatoes, and wheat grains.
- Side Dish – A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal.
