Collagen-Fat-Nut Bars

These bars substitute well for granola bars, nut bars, protein bars or fat bombs. They contain ingredients that provide healthy fat and protein without causing issues with blood sugar (provided you choose your sweetener wisely)! There are two methods below: one with chunky whole nuts, the other uses a nut butter. There are more detailed notes on the ingredients, below the recipes.

I have included some rough measurements, but truth be told, you can alter these ratios quite a bit and still get a good result. Feel free to play with your own amounts depending on what you have on hand and your own tastes and needs. Following this method should ensure that the mixture holds together. It is best to store these in the freezer.

Ingredients:

Any combination of raw cashews, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts
Pumpkin seeds
Dried coconut
Raw cacao butter and/or coconut oil (both are solid at room temperature)
Inulin powder
Collagen protein powder
Cassava flour or Coconut flour (optional)
Sea Salt
Vanilla extract
Sweetener:  Honey, stevia, xylitol (any one or in combination)

Method #1: Chunky whole nuts  (This should yield 6-8 servings, each one about 250 calories)

1. Roast about 3 cups of the raw nuts in an oven at about 350 – 375°F until golden brown (about 15 minutes), then let cool. Do the same for 1 cup combined of pumpkin seeds and coconut, 350°F, less time roasting (these can burn easily).
2. Melt down cacao butter and/or coconut oil so that you have about 5 tbsp of melted fat. Using more cacao butter will give you a harder, crisp finish, while coconut oil will make this more like fudge. Have melted oil ready to add later.
3. Chop the nuts roughly or crush with the back of a heavy pan and add to roasted pumpkin seeds and coconut.
4. Add about 3-4 tbsp of inulin powder, any dry sweetener (xylitol, stevia powder) and some sea salt to taste. Mix together.
5. Add the melted oil to the mixture along with 1 tsp. of vanilla extract and any other liquid sweeteners you may be using to taste (20 drops vanilla stevia; 1 tbsp honey). Mix until well saturated by the oil. Mixture should be wet enough to absorb collagen in next step – consider adding more oil if necessary.
6. Add about 5 tbsp of collagen powder (usually about 2 scoops) and mix further.

7. Add a few teaspoons of water slowly as you mix to activate the collagen into a sticky texture that starts to bind the ingredients together. (If it doesn’t seem to bind, then add more melted oil at this point, then a bit more collagen if necessary, and more water – this is the trickiest part of the method. The ratio of collagen to oil to water is what makes it bind.)
8. Press the crumbly mix into molds for individual servings (think muffin tin or silicone muffin pan) or one large pan. The mixture should stick together when pressed.

Let set in the freezer for at least one hour before eating. With a little less care to binding and pressing the mixture together, this could resemble a healthy granola.

Method #2: Between cookie and fudge  (6-8 servings, about 250 calories each)

1. Roast about 3 cups of the raw nuts in an oven at about 350 – 375°F until golden brown (about 15 minutes), then let cool. Do the same for 1 cup combined of pumpkin seeds and coconut, 350°F, less time roasting (these can burn easily).
2. Melt down cacao butter and/or coconut oil so that you have about 5 tbsp of melted fat. Using more cacao butter will give you a harder, crisp cookie finish, while coconut oil will make this more like fudge. Have melted oil ready to add later.
3. Grind the roasted nuts along with the pumpkin seeds and coconut into a rich nut/seed butter, adding a bit of sea salt before processing. I use a Nutri-bullet with the nut-butter blade attachment. You could buy an organic nut butter in place of the raw nuts if it does not contain extra commercial seed oils like sunflower, canola or safflower oil.
4. Add the melted oil to the nut butter, and 1 tsp vanilla extract along with any of these sweeteners to taste (20 drops liquid stevia, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp xylitol etc.) and mix by hand with a spoon until well combined.
5. Mix in about 5 tbsp (about 2 scoops) collagen powder. Mixture should be wet enough to activate the collagen to be sticky.
6. Add about 4 tbsp. (or more) of inulin powder to create a cookie-dough texture. You can take this further by adding an additional 2-4 tbsp of coconut flour or cassava flour, pressing the flour into the nuts with the back of a spoon. The mixture should bulk up yet remain slightly sticky.
7. Press the crumbly mix into a mold (think muffin tin or silicone muffin pan). The mixture should stick together when pressed. If the mixture does not bind together, add more melted oil and collagen, and mix further. This method does not seem to require any added water.

Let set in the freezer for at least one hour before eating.

Backstory

When I started my journey into healthier eating, I felt that I needed a quick go-to snack that would support my energy and keep me from crashing when I could least afford it. I revise my recipe every so often, focusing on the best ingredients that I can find.

These bars can be used to stave off cravings for sugar or other sweets and can provide a needed boost of energy between meals or in place of a snack at any time of day when there isn’t time to prepare something healthy. Some find a version of these helpful before bedtime if they are prone to waking early due to issues with blood-sugar regulation.

The bars rely on nuts, which contain balanced amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrate. The addition of superfood pumpkin seeds and coconut provide important minerals and healthy fats, along with cacao butter or coconut oil. Inulin powder provides some zero-calorie resistant starch, sweetness, texture and bulk to the bars, while collagen powder adds a superior amino acid profile for protein along with stickiness to bind the bars together. They can be sweetened with a small amount of honey, or with stevia, erythritol, monk fruit or xylitol depending on your glucose considerations.

Looking for high quality raw nuts, organic where possible, I focus on cashews and macadamia nuts as they are less likely to contain harmful lectins and I add a small amount of brazil nuts for selenium. I put the nuts in a warm oven (160°F) for 3 hours to release some of the phytic acid before roasting at 375° F. Raw pumpkin seeds are easy to find, and I look for organic dried coconut with no other ingredients added.

Organic raw cacao butter can be found cheapest online, and I often mix this in different ratios with organic cold-pressed coconut oil. Look for a high-quality coconut oil that has no yellowing or strange odors when tasted at room temperature. Some bulk coconut oils in larger containers can sometimes taste a bit funny.

Look for organic inulin powder in bulk. Sizes of only 250 grams or less are generally over-priced. I use a lot of it in baking and prefer larger quantities that are less expensive. Try Piping-Rock in Canada or Bulk Supplements in the US. Inulin powder is often referred to as FOS (fructooligosaccharide).

My favourite collagen supplement is the vanilla-flavoured collagen protein from Bulletproof. It is far more decadent than other brands and includes powdered MCT oil and a powdered coconut creamer – also great in coffee! Other collagen protein powders will also do the job of binding the bars together. These supplements are great to use in the absence of regular bone broth in your diet. They may also be labelled “collagen peptides” or “hydrolyzed collagen.”

I often add either cassava flour or coconut flour to add bulk. Cassava flour (from healthy cassava tubers) will add carbohydrate calories. These additions are optional but create a more cookie-like texture in the second method above. I don’t use them in the first method, as they make the flavour less desirable and provide a chewier texture.

If using honey, use only raw and local if possible (think your farmers’ market). Vanilla-flavoured stevia and an organic vanilla extract are also great additions to this recipe for adding flavour.

I recommend grinding your own nut-butter in a Nutri-bullet or juice extractor using the nut-butter attachment, or you could simply chop the roasted nuts to create the chunky version of these bars. You could purchase a quality organic nut-butter if it doesn’t contain any commercial seed oils like sunflower, safflower oil, canola, or other vegetable oil.

I often later add some of my homemade melted chocolate on top of the bars for a truly amazing superfood eating experience! Other ingredients such as MCT oil, MCT powder, hemp hearts, chia seeds or other resistant starch or superfood powders (Maca, Lucuma etc) can also be welcome additions.

My intent is to make these decadent and rich, so I must be careful not to eat too much of them at any one time. I use them more when I am especially active, or I treat them as a meal replacement.