I LOVE these bars! A few weeks ago, I wanted to bake a slice recipe that was nut free for school lunch boxes. Something that is not too sweet can be packed with whatever I have in the pantry, tastes great, holds well, and actually gets eaten too. These are fantastic for that! And they're super simple too. A warning before we get started - it looks like the slice has a lot of ingredients, and it does, but you can use whatever fruits and seeds or nuts you have on hand, and a completely different combination to what I have used here. This gives you the flexibility to use fruits, nuts, and seeds that you and your family love!
Honey, Oat, Seed, and Fruit bars.
You'll need: 1 x 20x30 lamington tray, lined
1x Large and 1x small mixing bowl
Digital Scales
Silicone spatula and a wooden spoon
Small saucepan
Microwave safe bowl for melting chocolate
Ingredients for the slice: 125 g butter
100 g honey
pinch salt (optional)
2 tsp vanilla paste/essence or extract
2 g bi-carb soda
60 g recently boiled water Dry Ingredients:
160 g plain flour
150 g traditional rolled oats
100 g desiccated coconut
50 g brown sugar
Fruit & Nut Mixture can be made up of any fruits, seeds, or nuts that you have on hand or that you love.
I used:
60 g pepitas
60 g sunflower seeds
70 g Medjool dates, roughly chopped
70 g dried apricots, roughly chopped
70 g cranberries
For the chocolate drizzle 120 g dark chocolate
Method:
Preheat oven to 160C and line a 20x30cm lamington tray with baking paper along the base & sides.
Weigh all of the dry ingredients, the flour, oats, and brown sugar (I used unrefined coconut sugar as that's what I had on hand, but any brown sugar will be great. It can even be left out to reduce the sweetness even more), pinch salt, as well as any seeds, nuts and dried fruits that you are using for the recipe into a medium bowl. Stir together gently to mix and coat the fruits and nuts with the flour; this will help to distribute the fruits and seeds within the slice really well. Place the butter, honey, and vanilla into a small saucepan and turn on medium heat to gently melt together. At the same time, pop the kettle on to boil and weigh the bi-carb soda into a small (separate) bowl. Stir the butter and honey together while heating. When the butter has completely melted, turn the heat off, weigh 60 g of boiling water, and mix it together with the bicarb soda, I use a teaspoon to make sure the soda has completely dissolved in the water. Add the mixed water and soda into the warm butter and honey mixture and stir together; the mixture may begin to foam slightly.
Pour this warm, foamy mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir everything together until it is completely mixed and well coated with the honey and butter. Pour this mix into the lined lamington tray. Press it out neatly and evenly over the tray into the corners, I used an offset spatula to do this, but the back of a spoon works well too.
Bake the slice in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, until set and lightly golden. Remove from the oven once baked and leave until completely cooled before turning out of the pan and slicing. Personally, I leave the slice at room temperature for an hour or two and then place it in the fridge to chill; the chilled slice is much easier to portion into bars. When the slice is completely cooled or chilled, remove it from the baking tray and transfer it onto a chopping board. Using a sharp knife and ruler, score the slice into portions, I used a ruler to portion the slice into 18 good portions (slicing into 5x6.5cm bars), but you can make yours bigger or smaller if you wish.
Once the slice has been portioned, melt 120 g of dark chocolate gently in the microwave, in short, 20-25 second bursts, and stir until completely melted, be careful not to overheat the chocolate. Once melted, drizzle chocolate over the slice; this can be done with a teaspoon, a small piping bag, or even with a small sandwich bag that is filled with the melted chocolate and has the tip cut off to create a small opening to drizzle with.
Let the chocolate set and enjoy! I tend to keep this slice in a sealed container in the fridge just because I love to eat it cold, and it stops the chocolate from melting on warm days. It can be left at room temperature, too, in a sealed container, kept in a cool, dark space, away from direct sunlight for 4-5 days.