the Boy loves-loves-loves Clif bars and KIND bars and the like. I love to cook and bake and figure out how to make things for a fraction of the market price. I stumbled across a recipe on a blog and the rest is history...
fruit & nut bars (knockoff KIND bars)
adapted from here
ingredients
1 1/3 cups toasted or raw nuts, coarsely chopped after measuring
1/4 cup crisp rice cereal
1/2 cup seeds
1/3 cup dried fruit, chopped after measuring
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1/4+ cup honey (see notes, below)
directions
preheat oven to 325 degrees F. line an 8-inch square pan with foil and lightly spray with non-stick spray (if you don't, you'll be sorry!). tear off a separate piece of foil for pressing, spray with non-stick spray and set aside.
in a medium bowl, combine the chopped nuts, seeds, and chopped dried fruit. add salt and honey, stir to coat evenly.
scrape/dump mixture into prepared pan. Use sprayed foil piece to to press mixture evenly into pan.
bake for 18 minutes (the bars will not be hard at this point). place pan on cooling rack and let cool for 15 to 20 minutes until partially set up. use the sides of foil to lift the bars from the pan. do NOT try to remove from foil at this point — they're not ready yet! cut into 8 bars.
allow bars to cool completely. once cooled, the bars will lift right off of the foil. Wrap in cling wrap, parchment or wax paper and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
notes
the first time we made these, we didn't use enough honey. the second time, there was too much and the bars didn't really solidify. I'll try about 1/3 cup next time, that might be the winner.
optional
for just nuts bars: omit seeds and dried fruit, increase nuts to 2 cups, keep other ingredients and process identical.
it seems that every summer, I get on a super lemon kick. all lemon, all the time. thanks to a recent Costco visit, our freezer subsists solely of frozen strawberries, so I've been looking for uses. on an unseasonably cold and rainy day a while back, I itched for some sunshine in edible form, and these guys were born.
strawberry lemonade bars
for the oatmeal-pretzel crust
adapted from here
prep time: 5 minutes | cook time: 10-12 minutes | cooling time: 20 minutes
ingredients
1 cup finely crushed pretzels
1 cup slightly crushed quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted
for the bars
adapted from here
prep time: 15 minutes | cook time: XX minutes | yields: 9 2x2-inch bars
ingredients
4 large eggs
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup liquid honey
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup strawberry juice and pulp (from about 2 1/2 cups frozen berries, thawed)
directions
preheat oven to 350 degrees F. pulse preztels in a food processor until they resemble graham cracker crumbs. dump into a small bowl and set aside. separately, pulse oatmeal slightly, just to break up some of the big bits - don't grind it up too much: chunks now = sugary buttery crunchy chunks later. add melted butter and sugar, stir to combine. spread in 8x8-inch pan that has been coated with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper, working crust up the sides of the pan. bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. let cool slightly while you prepare the filling.
((note: this is a ton of butter, right? I think you could probably get away with about 1/2-2/3 of the amount, but I'll report what I did this time around. next time though, I'll use way less so I'll feel way less guilty housing a whole pan...alone.))
while your crust cools slightly, puree thawed berries in a blender, food processor or with an immersion blender. measure and set aside approximately 1 cup puree/juice.
in a large bowl, whisk together eggs and flour until no lumps remain. add honey (warm the honey just slightly if it’s solid), lemon zest and freshly-squeezed juice. whisk together until smooth. finally, add in the strawberry puree and whisk together again.
pour the mixture over the slightly-cooled crust and place in 350 degree F oven. bake 28-30 minutes until the filling is set (the very center may still wiggle a little, but will set completely as it cools).
remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting into squares (or eating directly from the pan). store remaining bars (yeah, right) in the refrigerator, in the pan covered in plastic wrap.
optional
dust with powdered sugar just prior to serving
