I use a silicon mould tray to make biscuits, snack sized bars. I have used a few recipes, which for taste seem to work (both raw and baked). But my recurring problem is to get the ingredients to bind so the 'bars' remain sufficiently stable for transport and when holding them. Typical ingredients are crushed nuts, dried fruits, maple syrup, cacao, flour form of nuts, oats etc.
So, what are suitable vegan binding ingredients ?
Aren't eggs used in non-vegan recipes as binding agents? Maybe you can try a vegan egg substitute such as Namaste's Egg Replacer.
I've found you should stick with dates or figs. I've made my share of energy bars that turned into granola using anything else.
One binder I've used is sugar!
Instead of adding your sugar as-is, boil it on the stove until the hard crack stage (or earlier if you want it more chewy), and then add your additives to that and pour into (heatproof) moulds. I've made energy bars like this with great success. It's like brittle (eg recipe) but you add more stuff so the ratio of stuff-to-brittle is higher.
My recipe also used milk powder (not vegan) but it probably isn't needed:
Dates and figs are vegan and can work as a binder.
Some commercial energy bars use dates as binders, and figs should work as well.
Dates and figs also have the benefit of being tasty and fibrous.
Because they are sweet, they can help ensure energy bars taste good.
In many regions of the world, they are inexpensive compared to many other common ingredients.
