Nut and Seed Crunch
Posted: June 14, 2009 Filed under: Agave Nectar, Breakfast, Candy, desserts, Erythritol, gluten free, Quick cook, Snacks, Stage 2, Travel Foods, Vegan 2 Comments »
I used to get something called a “Cosi Break Bar” from the infamous restaurant when I had some time in Washington Dulles airport. It’s basically made up of sunflower and pumpkin seeds, oats, coconut, cranberries, pistachios and sweetened with honey and cream.
I made a very simple version of this recently with only sunflower and sesame seeds, almonds and brazil nuts. It’s really very flexible, and you can add or leave out ingredients to your taste.
This uses a 4:1 Erythritol/agave candy syrup, and I used packets of erythritol for this. The syrup can actually be made in the microwave with careful watch so that nothing burns.
12 packets erythritol
3 teaspoons agave nectar
pinch salt
about 1/2 cup of a mix of nuts and seeds to your liking
In a microwave safe container (I sometimes use a paper cup), combine erythritol, agave and salt. Heat for about 30 seconds in the microwave on the highest setting. Check the syrup. If still grainy, heat in 15 second increments until syrup becomes clear.
Add nuts and seeds and mix throughly until well coated. You can leave in cup to let cool or if you happen to have any parchment paper, you can spread the mixture out to cool.
Break or cut into pieces.
It is extremely dangerous to heat any sugar syrup in a microwave oven. Syrups can become very hot very fast, not only because they are microwave absorptive, but also, due to their low specific heat capacity, they can heat more than twice as fast as water. Also, they can easily reach temperatures of over 300 F without darkening, so a person couldn’t tell by looking: how hot the syrup is. I’m a microwave scientist with nearly 50 years of experience working with microwave ovens.
Guru,
I certainly appreciate the information. This is great info to know about sugar and microwaves. Good thing this is a sugar free recipe and site!