LCM bars are popular in lunchboxes but they also have on average almost 2 teaspoons of sugar per bar. Hardly the sort of food to help with concentration in class. This refined sugar free version includes a dose of protein and good fats, and has been kid approved at Lithgow’s Halloween 15 Festival (and by my own 2 of course!). I modelled this version off I Quit Sugar and Wholefood Simply – both are great sites for healthy refined sugar free recipes.
Ingredients
- 4 cups puffed rice
- 30g butter
- 1/2 cup tahini*
- 1/2 cup rice malt syrup
- 2 tspns vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
* use a little less than 1/2 cup if your children aren’t use to the taste of tahini
Directions
- Heat a frying pan over medium heat
- Toast puff rice in the dry frying pan – one cup at a time. Shake the pan to move them around and be careful – they can burn quickly. You just want them to get a little crunchy. Set aside in a large bowl
- Melt the butter
- Add the tahini, rice malt syrup, vanilla extract and salt. Stir over heat until it creates a thick caramel sauce
- Allow sauce to cool slightly
- Pour sauce over the toasted puff rice, and stir through until it’s all coated
- Line a lamington or similar tin with baking paper
- Turn the coated puffed rice into the tin and press into the tin quite firmly. You can use the back of a spoon to do this
- Put in fridge for about 2 hours for it to firm up
- Remove from the tin and cut into suitable sized bars for your lunchbox. I tend to make these more squares than bars.
Freezing / Storing Instructions
Store in an air-tight container in the fridge. They will be quite hard straight from the fridge but become chewy the longer they are out of the fridge. They can also be frozen and still maintain the same chewy texture in the lunchbox when they defrost.
Another 2 ways of using recipe
- Add some cacao to the butter mixture to create a chocolate version
- Add some mini chocolate chips to the mix to create a choc chip version.
Want to print a copy of this recipe?
Print your copy here Chewy Caramel Rice Bar