Apple and oat bars
I regularly bake these apple and oat bars for my family. They keep my constantly hungry boys satiated for more than five minutes, which is no mean feat these days.
I also buy cereal bars but the reality is that my lot get through so much food that I’d be bankrupt if I solely relied on shop bought stuff. Plus homemade does tend to be more filling in my opinion (unless your principal ingredient is air like in many recipes I see on the internet!).
Tinned apples?! I hear you say.
Yes. Because the recipe started with a tin I had, for some reason, and that it has now become my gauge. Feel free to use fresh apple puree; you will need 385g.
Using a tin also mean I can do this all year round and not just in the autumn.
Ingredients:
300g porridge oats
2 tbsp. chia seeds
125g butter
125g golden syrup
1 tin of unsweetened apple slices
4 tsp. cinnamon
100g dried apples
Method:
Start by taking 100g from your oats. We’re going to turn this into a flour as it’ll help bind the bars together. In fact, we’re also going to use the chia seeds for this, as they contain a lot of fibre.
So blitz your 100g of oats with the chia seeds until you get a fine flour. Then add the flour to the remaining oats in a large bowl.
Finely chop the dried apples (I pulse them in the blend, it’s faster and less sticky) and add them to the bowl too.
Slowly melt the butter and golden syrup. Add the cinnamon when melted, the heat will help diffuse the flavour.
Blitz the entire content of the apple tin, without draining, we want a bit of liquid.
Pour all the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.
Transfer into a lined tin (mine was 20x30cm) and press tightly. I recommend that you leave the tin for 1h at least, as this will help the soluble fibre (from the oats and seeds) and the moisture (from the apples) gel together so the bars don’t fall apart when baked.
Baked for 45min at 170 degrees. Leave to cool before cutting.
They will keep for a few days in an air tight box but I recommend that you keep them in the fridge, especially if it’s hot, just to make sure they don’t go mouldy.
