Easy Vegan Chocolate Pecan Crumble Bars

Although I make a lot of impressive healthy desserts on my blog, actually only a few of them make it to my favourite list. I know they are favourites because they are the ones I tend to make on repeat. The rest I try and then usually give to friends or take them to church events etc. My favourite desserts are always quick and easy to make and definitely must involve chocolate. I made these crumble bars almost a year ago for the first time after adapting a recipe from Detoxnista which you can find here. My recipe is only a tiny bit different. I remember when I first had these that they made me feel good! at the time I was going through a self-induced magnesium deficiency (I cut out my magnesium topical spray cold turkey after overdosing on it and it gave me low blood pressure, this extreme move from high to low magnesium actually put me in a deficiency state as my body couldn’t keep up with the changes). At this time I noticed my hormones dropped really low again, my low estrogen and progesterone symptoms came back and my ovulation was way later than usual. My periods also became crazy heavy! I distinctly remember eating these crumble bars making my hormones feel better and more in balance. It actually made me wonder why? I knew the chocolate had magnesium but I was eating lots of other chocolate and wasn’t feeling that great. I researched pecans and realised that they are really high in manganese. Manganese is a mineral that I don’t hear talked about too often but it is arguably the most important mineral for the pituitary in the brain. The pituitary is responsible for reproductive hormone production and if the pituitary isn’t happy then the ovaries, adrenals and thyroid are also not happy. Both Manganese and Magnesium act similarly on the pituitary in that they help to support FSH and LH production meaning they help to the production of all reproductive hormones, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. While I don’t recommend eating these bars to fix the pituitary, I do recommend eating more pecans. I love nuts but I realised that I eat pecans very rarely compared to walnuts, almonds and cashews. So I have made a concerted effort to eat more pecans. They can easily be added to breakfasts and desserts and savoury foods too. Taking a manganese supplement is absolutely NOT recommended by anyone as it can create toxicity and has some pretty bad side effects, there is usually no need to when manganese can be easily obtained through food.

These crumble bars are very quick to make. All you need is a food processor and a stovetop. You can sub the cacao butter with coconut oil or full-fat coconut cream although both the taste and texture will turn out a little different. Some people don’t like dates, you can try sub dates for sultanas or raisins in this recipe making sure to potentially add some water if the mixture is too try. The bars don’t require much time to set in the fridge or freezer so can be enjoyed straight away. I actually recommend making a larger batch of these as in our house these don’t last more than three days. I found this recipe hard to photograph because the bars are very crumbly, it’s my second go trying to style and photograph them. The first go I was unhappy with the way the photos turned out so they never made it to the blog. It’s a shame because again this recipe is one of my favourites! So yummy! The recipe is vegan, refined sugar-free, gluten-free and dairy-free.

Get the recipe in my new book “Eating for Hormone Balance: a Plant-based Guide” Click this text to purchase.