What's the best place for sourcing these ingredients?

[overweightcat]

Not sure where else I can post.

Since lockdown and the constant urge to snack out of boredom has started I've taken to cutting down my general snacking/ using healthier or low calorie alternatives for myself and I also would like to make some healthier desserts for us as a family and since I have time I might as well give it a go.

I've been looking at making things like healthy flapjacks/ homemade granola bars for DCs and alternative versions of standard treat foods to have rather than the super sugary or store bought stuff.

I'm looking for almond flour, hazelnuts (which I've been unable to buy in the supermarkets and would like to buy a larger amount of) , cocoa nibs, coconut sugar, coconut flakes and coconut cream at the moment.

What are the best online places for these types of ingredients that aren't super expensive?
I've seen £20 for 500g of hazelnuts on some sites which make me 😱

Coconut cream and coconut flakes should be readily available in most supermarkets - I can get them easily in Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s.

Do you have an Asian supermarket near you? That might be good for coconut sugar. You could also try a health food shop if you have one nearby, though they tend to be very expensive.

For the rest, it’s worth seeing what’s on Amazon. They often have decently priced ingredients from third party suppliers.

hopefully the links attach below

hazelnuts
cocoa nibs
coconut flakes
coconut cream
coconut sugar
almond flour

Holland and Barrett is cheaper (they are not necessarily the cheapest but even they are better)

All of those things are really quite calorie dense, and not necessarily healthier than a packet of Pombears, just FYI. Hazelnuts are generally expensive anyway, but try Amazon.

Grape Tree is still doing online orders - haven’t looked for all your ingredients but they usually have all in stock, and eg. Hazelnuts are £5.99 for 50g currently, £9.99 for 1kg.

Those are all quite calorie dense foods though, and quite sweet too, so not really for losing weight, but certainly have some nutritional benefits over crisps and chocolate, for instance.

*typo - should be £5.99 for 500g, not 50g!

Asian supermarkets are excellent, usually cheaper and better stocked than most big name supermarkets.

Almond flour is just ground almonds try looking for that instead of flour in the supermarket or cheaper still blitz them in the blender yourself if you have one

I think the thing is with flapjacks etc you sort of need a fundamental baseline of sugar just to physically hold them together...

Fond childhood memories of my mum trying to healthify a flapjack recipe and it just crumbling to bits when she tried to slice it. This was before you could get hold of dates in supermarkets, outside of Christmas.

Coconut sugar is no healthier than normal sugar, a sensible balance of golden syrup/sticky date-type fruit is probably slightly better for flapjacks.

Hazelnuts will be pricey as they only have a short season (Aug-Sept) and don't keep well plus not a common cupboard item compared to walnuts etc. Sunflower or pumpkin seeds + raisins/sultanas can be a nice substitute for the nutty/sweet combo.

As a pp said you can make "almond flour" by either buying whole blanched almonds, or buying raw almonds in skin, blanching them yourself to get skins off, then blending them a bit.

Most large supermarkets should stock them tbh, they aren’t special ingredients as such.

Coconut cream you should find in the supermarket isle with coconut milk/curry stuff
All supermarkets will do nuts , you don’t even need hazelnuts any mixed chopped nuts will do the job and will be cheaper if your on a budget

Nobody wants a healthy flapjack anyway though and a lot of these “healthier” flapjack recipes you just swap one form of sugar and fat for another. Just make normal ones but don’t the the children stuff themselves with them, it’s too much of 1 thing that makes one fat

Coconut flakes are probably nutritionally identical to dessicated coconut which is available fairly cheaply in any supermarket.

I'd substitute creamed coconut for coconut cream as that's very cheap in certain supermarkets in the world foods aisle. Lidl is probably the cheapest mainstream supermarket for nuts.

But I wouldn't fall into the trap of thinking that because you're using expensive Instagram-worthy sounding ingredients that the end product is necessarily healthier than standard versions.

Flapjack and granola bars are always going to be high calorie, high carb and high fat whether you use normal butter, oats, nuts and sugar or fashionable ingredients at five or ten times the price. You need to eat less of them whichever type you make.

I make 'flapjacks' for DS two mashed ripe bananas, 135g oats, splash of milk, whatever berries etc we have in the fridge, blueberries work well or cherries, strawberries, raspberries etc. Put in a lined baking dish half an hour in the oven. Healthy quick and simple

Pretty much everything you've listed is available in Tesco, our local Lidl also has most of it other than cocoa nibs , but as others have said it's a fallacy that most of those recipes are healthy

I'd try Holland & Barrett. These are good and don't require any particularly exotic ingredients. You can swap the types of dried fruit around.

forgot the link!
misselizabethsbakingblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/hairy-bikers-chewy-cranberry-and.html

Deliciously Ella has a recipe for 2 ingredient cookies which is worth a look. Basically it’s mashed banana mixed with porridge oats, baked in the oven. With added raisins it’s actually quite nice in a weird sort of way. I used to make it sometimes for when the kids come home from school ravenous and I don’t want them to eat yet more crap.
Have also made it with unsweetened apple purée (adding cinnamon is nice here) and plum purée - we have lots of home grown plums but I find this needs a little added sugar. Don’t go thinking any of these are as nice as proper cookies but they are pretty good for what they are.

Sorry - just read @DontStandSoCloseToMe recipe - and that’s pretty much the same thing! I use an ice cream scoop to dollop out globs of the mixture (yum - sounds great) and press flat with a fork before baking

Thanks everyone I'll have a look.
I'm not trying to be some super health freak and I'm not aiming for weight loss just looking for some recipes that are maybe slightly better nutritionally to try out.

I'll be trying things like avocado brownies which I've been given the recipe for by a friend which apparently had rave reviews - will we like them or not, I don't know but I'll give it a go.

Also sticking with small quantities of maple syrup or honey for a lot of the recipes over bucket loads of refined sugar, just little things.

I'd rather make things myself than store buy anyway and the hazelnuts in particular I'm going to use to try and make our own version of Nutella. Don't fancy the palm oil and other crap in the original. I've a few recipes to try.

They are all in normal supermarkets!!

Don’t let the nonsense poster about Pom Bears put you off OP, that’s a great shopping list. It doesn’t matter if food is calorie dense as long as it’s also packed with nutrients and free of rubbish like palm oil and E numbers.
I love the website Healthy Supplies. Real Food Source is also great. Good luck!

www.realfoodsource.com/

www.healthysupplies.co.uk/

Is Almond Flour the same as ground almonds? That's in normal supermarkets. Nuts are very expensive though, have been for a long time. But per calorie it probably evens out

If you like healthier chocolate I recommend Plamil. They do a couple of no sugar added varieties and I use it all the time, sprinkle some in my granola and use for baking. All the goodness and taste of cocoa butter but without the carbs and blood sugar spike.
Here’s the site:
www.plamilfoods.co.uk/

For sugar-free sweetener I recommend Truvia, which is made with stevia. You can get that at most supermarkets now.