Chewy Seedy Apricot Bars

Chewy Seedy Apricot Bars

These packed with flavour fingers come from Rachel Allen’s Rachel’s Favourite Food at Home. They are chewy, but only a bit. I especially liked the apricots with sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, but it was the brown sugar and peanut butter that was the real underlying flavour booster. I seem to be having a mini obsession with peanuts and peanut butter recently! I was drawn to these as a sort of Summery version of a Phil Vickery recipe that I bake in the Winter, with no peanuts, and dried cranberries instead of the apricots. I made it for a bake sale a couple of years ago and it’s one of the bars friends remember especially and asked for the recipe, perhaps it because it’s achievable if you aren’t a big baker. Whatever, they make it and ask me to make it for them. I’d probably remember chocolate, caramel, lemon or mint. I like to please my nearest and dearest though .

I think I could have cooked these a few minutes longer, because they were very moist, although this possibly made them still lovely and not dry at all even after a few days.

I made these to be a mid afternoon munch-able, and really to stop us eating any non filling junk, and it worked - they keep tummies full for ages!

Chewy Seedy Apricot Bars

Ingredients300g/11oz porridge oats
100g/4oz pumpkin or sunflower seeds, or a mixture of the two
50g/2oz desiccated coconut
50g/2oz plain flour
200g/7oz butter
200g/7oz golden syrup
150g/5oz soft brown sugar
150g/5oz dried apricots, chopped
125g/4½oz crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3.

2. Line an 18cm/7inx28cm/11in Swiss roll tin with non-stick baking parchment, leaving a little of the parchment hanging over the edges for easy removal later.

3. Place the oats, seeds, coconut and flour into a large bowl and mix together.

4. Place the butter and golden syrup into a saucepan and cook until the two ingredients have melted and combined. 5. Add the sugar, chopped apricots, peanut butter and vanilla extract to the saucepan and mix well. Then pour the mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix together until the ingredients have become evenly combined.

6. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and press down firmly with a wooden spoon. Transfer the tin to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the mixture has become golden-brown and slightly firm. Remove the mixture from the oven and allow it to cool in the tin.

7. Once the mixture has cooled remove it, and, still in the paper, cut it into 18 bars (or cut them to whatever size you want them to be).

8. Store in an air-tight container for up to one week. These will also freeze well.