♥ Orange Breakfast Bars

This Sunday’s weather made it very difficult to believe that we are just ten days away from Midsummer.  The sky was dull and dark in these parts and misty, gauzy, grey rain floated incessantly to the ground.  A soft day!  To cheer myself up this evening I did a spot of comfort baking and whizzed up a batch of orange and cinnamon breakfast bars, for the freezer.  The recipe comes from Jane Clarke’s book  Body Foods for Life.

INGREDIENTS

125 g plain wholemeal flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

125 g unsalted butter, softened

125 g soft brown sugar

1 egg, beaten lightly

1 tablespoon golden syrup

50 g dried apricots, chopped

50 g dried figs, chopped

50 g large raisins, chopped

finely grated rind of an orange

175 g coarse oatmeal

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.  Grease and line an 18 cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper.

Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon into a bowl.  Put the butter and sugar into a separate bowl and beat until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg a little at a time.  Add the golden syrup, dried fruits, orange rind and oatmeal, and mix until smooth.  Mix in the flour mixture.  Place in the lined tin and bake for about 15 – 20 minutes, until golden brown.

Take out of the oven and while still warm cut the mixture into fingers (I do squares) but leave in the tin for 10 minutes to allow it to firm up slightly.  Remove the biscuit fingers and leave  on a wire rack to cool.

Don’t worry about the lack of liquid in the recipe, it works I promise.

Great news (for me at least)  the rain has stopped and it’s still light, so I am off out for a walk.  Talk to you soon.