Oat Fig Bars

I was looking for a regular fig bar recipe when I found this and it looked easy and it was already healthy so I thought I'd try it. Frankly, I don't trust recipes that purport to be healthy and I don't know if I even gave it a try in its original form, but this is the version I've settled on - pretty much.



Oat and Fig Squares

1 + cup dried figs, cut into pieces
2/3 cup water
1 1/2 Tablespoons honey
3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon molasses
1/4 cup milk

1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon orange zest

1. Preheat oven to 350⁰F . Put figs in a medium saucepan, combine figs, water, honey and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 5 to 10 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally; cool.

2. Grease a 9X9-inch baking pan. In a small bowl, combine flour, rolled oats, baking soda, salt and orange zest. In a medium bowl combine, butter, honey, molasses, and milk. Stir in dry ingredients and mix well. Dough will be sticky. Chill to make handling easier.

3. Place a little more than half of the oat mixture in the prepared pan and spread evenly across the bottom. Spread figs evenly on top. Add remaining oat mixture on top of fig layer, allowing some of the figs to show through. Pat lightly to flatten. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack. When cool, cut into 16 squares.

These really are very good. I should go try the recipe again, just to make sure it still works.