Recipe Revamp: Pressed Blueberry Apple Bars

I have a horrible habit of assuming I can recreate any wonderful thing I’ve seen in the world. Most recently, this habit reared its ugly head when I tried a pressed by KIND bar. I’m almost never right, but this time, I think I did pretty well.

If you have not yet had one of these new, “not-so-standard fruit snacks,” as the company calls them, they’re kind of like a granola bar, but made with fruit. They’re chewy, a little sticky, and very flavorful. The first time I had one, I did my normal nutrition label check, and I was shocked. There are only three ingredients in these things. They’re all natural (grain-free) and super tasty.

I had the strawberry-apple-chia bar first. And that’s really all there is to it: strawberries, apples, and chia seeds. I regularly have all those ingredients on hand.

After a few tests, I think I’ve figured it out. It may not be an exact replica, but it’s a fruit snack I’m willing to eat, which is more than I can say for most.

I made apple-blueberry-chia “bites” instead of bars. I made them in a mini muffin tin out of pure personal preference. You could use the same ingredients and make a sheet pan of bars if you wanted.

Because these are “pressed,” I started by pressing my apple. I diced it and added it to my sauce pan over medium heat. When the apple started to get soft, I started pressing. I used a meat tenderizer, but you could use a potato masher or even a fork. You want to retain the integrity of the pieces — you’re not making mush; you’re just pressing out the juice.

I pressed the blueberries more gently because they’re more fragile. When I had a consistently colored chunky mix of the two, I added the chia seeds. They’re there to soak up the remaining liquid from the fruit and to make the bites stick together. They also add a nice dose of fiber and protein.

The most important part of this recipe is patience. With my mixture in a mini muffin pan, I set my oven to dehydrate (150 degrees Fahrenheit) for three hours. The result was 12 bite-sized fruit cups that reasonably resembled a pressed by KIND bar.

The difference between this recipe and a more traditional fruit leather is that these are chunky. There is no water added, there is no blending, and the result is about as thick as a granola bar rather than a fruit roll up.

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Fruit Bites

Serves: 12 pieces

Combine pressed fruit with chia seeds and dehydrate it for a nutritious (if not a terribly attractive or photogenic) fruit snack.

Ingredients

• 1 apple, diced
• ½ cup blueberries
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to dehydrate (150 degrees Fahrenheit).
2. Add the diced apple to a sauce pan over medium heat.
3. When the apple starts to get tender, press the juice out of it, breaking down each piece's structure some, but leaving the pieces intact.
4. After the apple is fully pressed, add the blueberries to the pan.
5. Press the blueberries gently to release their juice, then fold them in with the apples.
6. Gently stir in the chia seeds.
7. Portion the mixture into the mini muffin tin (or spread it out into a layer on a sheet pan to be cut into bars later).
8. Dehydrate for three hours or until the fruit snacks are firm.

3.5.3208

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