Lidey Heuck’s Date & Almond Bars: An Easy, Healthy-ish Vegan Treat

Lidey Heuck’s Lidey Bars are one of those rare healthy-ish treats I actually crave, not just tolerate. When I was a kid, my brother and I used to eat plain rice cakes and try to convince ourselves they tasted like something. Cake, maybe? (They never tasted like cake.) These Vegan Date & Almond Bars don’t ask you to pretend and they’ve been in the regular rotation since I first made them for a cookbook club last year. The recipe was created by Denise Cara, who ran the bakery at Amber Waves in Amagansett, a place any longtime Ina fan will recognize. You pulse dates, almonds, cinnamon, coconut, oats, and maple syrup together, press it all into a pan, sprinkle more coconut on top, and bake until the edges are golden. They’re chewy, nutty, just sweet enough, and not satisfying “for a healthy treat,” but actually satisfying. They keep well and are easy to make which automatically earns them a permanent spot in my rotation … especially now that I’ve got the sweet tooth of a five-year-old…