Chocolate Cherry Cashew Bars

This recipe came to me by way of my dear friend, Mary Ann. She enjoys cooking and reading blogs, and she always sends me her best finds. This one is from the blog "Peas and Thank You" and it hit a home run in my house. It's a sweet and salty, fruity and chocolaty, crunchy and chewy taste treat.

What more could you want?

Chocolate Cherry Cashew Bars

Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 30 mins | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• Ingredients (12 bars)
• 2 T. flax seeds (or approximately 3 T. ground)
• 1/2 c. maple syrup, agave or honey (or mixture of any of the three)
• 1 t. salt
• 1 c. whole almonds, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 c. peanuts, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 c. cashew pieces
• 1/2 c. dried cherries
• 1/2 c. quality chocolate chips

Directions:

Prep Time: 5 min.
Cook Time: 30 min.


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To the ground flax, add the syrupy sweetener of your choice. Mix well and set aside. In a large bowl, combine salt, almonds, peanuts, cashews and cherries. Pour flax syrup mixture over nuts and cherries and stir until evenly coated. Line an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper. Spread the nut mixture in the baking pan evenly, from corner to corner. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, until bars are slightly browned and edges are crisp. They will be soft, but will harden upon cooling.

Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips in a small bowl in the microwave or over a double-boiler. Drizzle chocolate over almost cooled bars. Chocolate will be wet, but will set upon cooling.

When bars and chocolate have set, pull parchment out of pan and set bars on a flat cutting surface.
Cut bars into squares, and store in an airtight container. They stay especially crunchy if you refrigerate them.

Nutritional Info:

3.62 = weight watcher points 1/3 cups = cherries

Note: The pic is not mine.