Chocolate Chews

It's Memorial Day here in the United States, the traditional start of summer, at least for us northern states. In years past this was our first weekend camping of the season. This year we kicked it up a notch, took advantage of the early spring and did our first weekend of backpacking in April. 

We're gone again this weekend to backpack in the Bigelow Preserve. Damien took today off work to finish getting us all packed up. Good thing too, it was a busy week of summer in the Tougas household. But we are almost all ready to go. Packs, food, gear and it looks to be gorgeous weekend to boot. 

One thing we're packing is our favorite trail treat - chocolate chews.

About

We make these energy bars for most of our weekend hikes and bring them along for backpacking trips also. We snack on them during our breaks. The combined feel-good effect of the cocoa, the chewy texture and concentrated calories makes for a great little snack. Everyone who has eaten them - friends and family joining us on hikes, have loved them. All natural, all goodness.

These first appeared at FIMBY as truffles but for hiking we smoosh them into a plastic rectangle container and cut them into squares. Ideally we'd like a nice titanium container but for now we use what we have.

These are quite soft and do need to be stored and served from a container. If you put them into baggies they will just squish up and be less than appetizing.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dried fruit - raisins, prunes, apricots, cranberries or dates
• 3/4 cup almonds
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup soymilk
• 1/2 cup fair trade cocoa
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 - 2 tsp almond extract

Directions

1. In a food processor chop dried fruit and almonds into a fine chunky meal.
2. Pour in tahini and milk and mix well.
3. Add cocoa, coconut and almond extract. Mix well, scrapping the sides of the bowl often.
4. Transfer mixture into a small container and press down firmly with a spatula or your hands.
5. Refrigerate till ready to pack.
6. On the trail, cut into squares.

Notes

These can be made ahead of time and keep well in the fridge. They'll keep well on the trail also for a couple days. When they're not refrigerated though they will get stick-to-your-fingers soft in warm weather.