Ottolenghi’s Granola Bars
Serves 6
Prep time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup pecans
- 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
- ¼ cup sesame seeds
- 1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped into small pieces
- 1/3 cup dried sour cherries
- ½ cup ground almonds
- 2 cups whole rolled oats
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup Demarara sugar (this is a light brown sugar with a hint of molasses)
- Small bowl of hot water for soaking dried cherries and apricots
Directions
- Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
- Grease a 9×9 inch baking pan and line with baking parchment
- Scatter pecans on a baking sheet and roast for 8 minutes in preheated oven.
- Remove pecans from oven and raise temperature of oven to 320 degrees.
- Half fill a small bowl with hot water and soak the apricots and cherries for ten minutes, then drain.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together pecans, ground almonds, cherries, apricots, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, oats, cinnamon, and salt.
- Bring butter, honey and sugar to a simmer in a saucepan and cook until light brown – don’t let it get too dark.
- Pour butter, honey and sugar mixture over the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Spoon the mixture into the baking pan and pack down tightly with a spoon.
- Bake for 22 minutes, until lightly brown on top. Allow to cool before removing from pan.
- Bars will be soft when removed from the oven but will firm up as it cools.
- They can be individually wrapped when they cool, for an on-the-go snack.
- For people with nut allergies, you can omit the pecans and ground almonds. Use wheatgerm as a replacement for the almond powder.
