My take on a Larabar Strawberry Shortcake

A month or two ago, I was so excited to find out that one of Larabar's latest limited edition flavors would be Strawberry Shortcake (I was hoping Larabar or the Pure Bar would eventually make that flavor). I couldn't wait to pick up a box at Target (that's where I got the limited edition flavors during the holiday season), but unfortunately, never got my hands on them.

Although Strawberry Shortcake Larabars are still available online (at the time that I type this post), I opted to make my own version, based on the ingredient list (remember, I haven't seen, nor tried them yet). I added 1/4 cup of dates (soaked briefly to soften them), 1/4 cup macadamia nuts, 1/4 cup cashews, 1/4 cup dried cranberries (I used apple-sweetened ones), 1/4 cup freeze-dried strawberries (I didn't have any basic dried strawberries at the time I made this), 1/4 cup pecans, 1/4 tsp. vanilla, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice (didn't measure that) and sea salt, to taste, to my old-school mini food processor (it belonged to my grandmother). I ran it until the ingredients became a sticky crumb.

At this point, I could have formed the sticky crumb into 2 or 3 bars, but since I like to have fun with the presentation, I decided to make shortcakes, similar to the Pure Bar Tartlets from the other day. Just like the tartlets, I rolled my mock Larabar "dough" into balls, placed them in a mini muffin tin and used the small end of my Vitamix tamper to form the centers. I ended up with 6 tartlets, or in this case, shortcakes.

I filled these shortcakes with coconut whipped cream (set a can of coconut milk in the fridge undisturbed overnight, so the cream and water separate; whip the coconut cream with a mixer or personal blender) and topped them off with fresh strawberries. I don't know if my recipe is anything like the real Strawberry Shortcake Larabars, but they sure taste good.