Yummy Apricot Breakfast Bars
ByOne day a few weeks ago, I was getting ready to make my Giant Breakfast Cookie recipe…but decided to play with it a bit and create some kind of breakfast bar instead. (I LOVE playing with recipes!)
I came up with these yummy apricot bars and knew I’d have to share it with you.
And then I forgot. (So sorry.)
Then, last week, Marie emailed and asked if I’d try to come up with a good breakfast bar recipe (I think she said something about ”since you’re so brilliant in the kitchen”…yeah, that was it.). And I was reminded that indeed…I had already come up with one. So Marie (and everyone else)…here you go! (I hope you like them…but if you don’t, can we still be friends?) :)
Apricot Breakfast Bars
2 sticks butter
3/4 cup honey
1 t. baking soda
1 t. sea salt
1 t. vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup sesame seeds
3/4 cup dried apricots
Melt butter and honey together. Remove from heat. Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and add baking soda, salt, vanilla and buttermilk and eggs. Stir in flour, oats, coconut and sesame seeds until well combined. Cut dried apricots into small bites (I usually cut mine into fourths). Fold apricot pieces into dough.
Bake in a 9 x 13 baking pan at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
*Make these bars even healthier by soaking the wheat and oats first to make them easier to digest:
Mix melted (and cooled) butter, buttermilk (with live cultures), flour and oats thoroughly in a glass bowl. Cover and leave on the countertop overnight. In the morning, stir in remaining ingredients. Bake as above.
You can play with these yourself and add any combination of fruit and nuts…I know I’ll continue to mix and match different ingredients! Enjoy!
You’ll find more kitchen tips at Tammy’s Recipes!
[tags]breakfast bars, healthy recipes, whole wheat[/tags]
Laura,
These sound delicious! I think I will need to add this to next week’s menu plan. I love that you can incorporate soaking! When I first saw your title, I assumed it would call for apricot jam, but much to my delight, you call for dried apricots! Thanks!
Blessings,
Michele
http://www.frugalgranola.blogspot.com
[Reply]
Oh yum!!!! I can’t wait to try these out when we get home. Thanks Laura.
[Reply]
They sound delicious. Sorry to be a pain, but can you tell me how much is a ’stick’ of butter? Thanks.
[Reply]
Catherine…you are never a pain!! I LOVE learning the different terms used in Australia for cooking too! A stick of butter equals 1/4 pound, or 1/2 cup. So this recipe calls for 1 cup of butter. What form does your butter come in there?
[Reply]
These look really good. I’m going to try them this weekend when we have guests coming. Thanks for sharing! Kelly
[Reply]
Yummy!! Hummmm…wonder how these would taste with apples rather than apricots??
I might just share this recipe with my mom who is diabetic…I think she could handle these. :)
Thanks for sharing!
[Reply]
Thanks Laura!
We get our butter in a 250gram rectangular shaped block. So your 2 ’sticks’ would be the same as our 1 ‘block’.
I’m all set to try this out now.
[Reply]
Hi Laura-my first response on your site…In looking at your dialogue with Aussies I am reminded to tell you that their cups are a little larger than ours, though I have found if I am consistent with the measurements I use (ie all aussie or all US, then it translates okay). By the way, the butter in Australia that I saw was in a 500g. block (a little larger than a pound-it looks like four of our sticks in one block), thus it would be equivalent to 4 sticks of butter, better to measure in cups for my fellow Aussies. There may have been 250g. rectangles of butter but I don’t remember them where we were.
[Reply]
has anyone tried making these gluten free? How about freezing them? that’s my goal.
[Reply]
Laura Reply:
February 12th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
I do know that these freeze well, but I’m not sure about the gluten free option. Hopefully someone else with experience will pipe in with an answer!
[Reply]
Hi Laura!
I am hoping to make these for breakfast sometime this month, but I was wondering about the soaking part- you specifically mention using buttermilk with live cultures, but I usually make a fake-ish type “buttermilk” using milk and lemon juice mixed together :) Would that work the same soaking magic or not? If not, is there something else I can use when soaking it? I’ll admit that I don’t soak a whole lot of things around here, but it seemed like such a easy step in this recipe so I thought I would try it…I just didn’t know if it would be a complete waste if I didn’t use buttermilk with live cultures.
Thanks!
Amy
[Reply]
Laura Reply:
August 17th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Yes, the milk and lemon juice would work as the lemon juice is acidic and would break down the phytates in the grain just like “real” buttermilk would.
[Reply]