(not) Sunset’s fruit and nut bars

My parents went to the Cal vs. Kansas basketball game the other night, so I was home alone with my sis and Kyle. 

Bored, but too tired to do anything that involved changing out of PJs, I randomly decided to bake.  My mom always has tons of magazines on hand, including my faves, Bon Appetite and Sunset.

I raided the cabinets and pantry…

Not too shabby.  

My parents didn’t have medjool dates…or dried apples…and not very much honey…soooo, yeah, I made quite a few changes to the recipe I was using.  Given that the ingredients are now 50% different, I think I can safely say my version is nothing like the original.  Oh well.  Thanks for the inspiration Sunset mag.

Sunset Fruit & Nut Chewy Oat Bars

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup almonds, slivered
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup pumpkin butter (I used TJ’s brand)
• 1/4 cup fig butter (dried fig puree)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup dried cherries
• 1/4 cup golden raisins

*original recipe calls for 3/4 cup medjool dates (instead of pumpkin & fig butter)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325.

Spread nuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until light golden, 10-12 minutes.  Once roasted, add to a food processor and pulse until chopped to desired consistency. (I omitted this because my almonds were already slivered)

Warm honey and maple syrup in microwave until they have the consistency of thin syrup.  Mix in nuts, cinnamon, pumpkin and fig butter.

Next add in oats.

Stir until well combined.

You may need to add more or less of the fruit butters to reach desired consistency.  [And in case you were curious, this is pretty awesome by itself]

Add in dried fruit.  In theory any dried fruit would work, probably even coconut flakes.  I just used what my parents had on hand. 

Mix it all thoroughly.

Scrape mixture into a parchment paper lined pan.

Plop!

Then pack it down as tight as you can.

I used a spoon because my hands were too sticky. 

Next place it in oven for 7 minutes. 

[Truly I don’t know if this is a necessary step – the recipe didn’t call for any oven time – but I thought it would help the bars set more and meld together if they cooked for a bit]

Then I let it cool a bit and put it in the freezer to set.

After ~20 minutes, I removed it from the freezer and voila!

You can lift out the parchment paper, cut, and individually wrap them for storage.

This recipe yields 12 bars.

Yum yum yum.

If you’re smart, you’ll sample one on the spot. 

Sweet, chewy, and oaty.  I love the raw oat texture with the almonds slivers too.

All stacked up and ready for work lunches

I’m shocked by how simple these were to make.  You must try them now.  Without honey, they’d be vegan, and without the oven time, they’d be raw.  So if you have agave nectar, you have a mighty fine vegan chewy fruit and nut bar recipe here.  And since it takes less than 10 minutes to throw together, you have no excuse.  I bet they’d be good holiday gifts too.

Enjoy!

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