Dark Chocolate Dates Bars

This rich and tasty recipe for dark chocolate date bars can be made with healthy ingredients to fit anyone's dietary needs. These bars don’t contain any flour or butter which means they are gluten-free and dairy-free, and vegan!  By Christina Marsigliese, author of Scientifically Sweet cookbooks Prep Time: 15 Minutes Servings: 8 bars Diet Category: Vegetarian, Gluten-Free, dairy-free   Ingredients:   Date bars: 1 ¼ cups 160g packed Terra Delyssa Delget Noor pitted dates ½ cup 60g walnuts ¼ cup 30g dried cranberries ¼ cup 30g shelled roasted pistachios ¼ cup 35g pumpkin seeds ¼ cup 20g unsweetened finely shredded coconut 3 tbsp 18g cocoa powder 1 tbsp 15ml Terry Delyssa Organic Extra Virgin Olive oil ½ tsp pure vanilla extract ⅛ tsp sea salt Chocolate layer: 3 oz 85g dark chocolate 2 tsp 10ml Terry Delyssa Organic Extra Virgin Olive oil For topping: 1 tbsp shelled chopped pistachios 1 tbsp chopped dried cranberries 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds flaky sea salt   Directions: Cover dates with boiling water and let soak for 5-10 minutes. Drain well. Add dates to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until chunky. Scrape down the bowl and add walnuts, dried cranberries, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, coconut and cocoa powder. Process again until mixture is chunky and slightly clumping. Add olive oil, vanilla and salt and pulse a few times until the mixture holds together in clumps. Scrape the mixture into an 8×4 inch loaf pan lined with parchment paper and press it firmly and evenly into the base. Melt dark chocolate gently in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water or microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between until chocolate is fully melted and smooth. Stir in olive oil. Pour over the bars, tilting pan so that the chocolate covers the bars evenly. Sprinkle chopped pistachios, dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds on top, then top with sea salt flakes. Refrigerate for 1 hour until the chocolate is set, then cut into 8 squares. Store covered in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.