OAT BERRY BARS

If there's one recipe that I never would have thought to try but will keep 'til the day I die, it's this one.  Originally from Rachel Ray and reincarnated on Beloved Green, I put my own spin on the recipe -- some substitutions and altered directions -- and it's downright awesome.  I will warn you that my sister actually didn't like it, but she said it's because she doesn't really like oatmeal.  So word to the wise -- if you don't like oats...what they hell were you looking at this recipe for in the first place?

INGREDIENTS:
1 c. wheat flour
1/4 c. flax meal
1/4 c. Splenda brown sugar blend
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. butter or margarine (I subbed prune puree for 2 1/2 tbsp. of it)
1/2 tsp. milk
2 c. oats
1 jar jelly, jam, or preserves of your choice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Combine flour, flax meal, Splenda, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a microwave-safe bowl small enough to fit in your microwave (this is a just in case option I'll talk about below).

3. Cut the butter into small pieces or slices and mix into dry ingredients.  If the butter is too cold to mix and won't combine, throw the bowl into the microwave in 10-second increments until the butter is soft enough to combine.  It's ornery.  Just tell it who's boss.

4.  Set aside 1/3 c. oats.  Add the remaining 1 2/3 c. oats to the mixture.  This is the point where you're gonna have to get your hands dirty.  Mix in the oats by hand and knead "until all the oats have found a home in the dough."  (Totally stole that phrase; it's so cute.)

5. Grease a 13"x9" pan or line it with parchment paper, lining the sides of the pan too.  I recommend a shallow one (unlike the one I used here).  A deep cookie sheet with sides would work just fine.

6. Press the dough into the pan.

7.  Cover the dough with the jam or preserves (I used pumpkin butter for this batch).  But beware!  If you don't use parchment paper, be super careful not to let the jam touch the sides of the pan.  Why? That jam will either burn or get so hard you won't be able to remove the bars without breaking them.  I learned this lesson for you; don't let my pain go to waste, people.

8. Sprinkle the remaining oats over the jam.

9.  Bake for about 25 until the top oats start to turn golden brown.

10.  Allow to cool a bit (until not hot but still pliable) and cut into bars.  On my second batch, the parchment paper in a shallow pan allowed me to slide the entire thing out of the pan and onto a cutting board, which made it way easier to cut and remove, but it's up to you whether you want to do that.


Although this does have a pretty good amount of butter and sugar, I took it to work as a snack since it was full of oats, flax, and jam, which I like to pretend is still a fruit.  There were several incarnations -- pumpkin, plum, plain, and carrot -- and I think the plum was the best.

Pumpkin Butter

Plum Preserves (left) and Carrot Jam (right)

Plain was not my fave; it really needs the sweetness and gelled texture of the fruit spread to bring it all together.  And by the way, when I said carrot, I meant carrot jam, not actual carrots or carrot cake style.  Of all the things I was surprised were phenomenal, it was that freaking carrot jam.  Who knew?

Official Grade: A+