Breakfast of Champions: Fig & Oat Bars

For September, my book club has started reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver.  The book is all about the Kingsolver family's effort to spend a year eating locally and sustainably - they lived on a farm and produced their own vegetables and meat.  Along with their story are lots of interesting tidbits on the benefits of being a locavore.  After about 7 chapters, some book-borne inspiration and a whole bunch of baking mojo combined to form this week's breakfast:  Fig & Oat Bars.

My aunt and uncle have 3 fig trees by their house that have been producing figs like nobody's business.  So naturally, I raided them.  They're local and I happen to LOVE figs, though this was my first time eating fresh ones.  I don't know what kind of figs they are, but they're about an inch across and a nice purple color when they're ripe.  I spent a lot of this afternoon doing all manner of stunts to get 15 or so out of the trees.  

And then I set about making the recipe I put below.  This recipe had all the various qualities I was looking for:  it called for fresh figs, it didn't add any straight sugar (just honey), and it made something easily portable that I could eat on the way to work.  I ended up a little shy of the 2 cups of figs called for in the recipe (mostly because I kept munching on them when I was dicing them), but the texture of the bars came out great anyway.  I was really pleased with the end result - they were sturdy enough to pick up and eat (I had my doubts when I was pressing in the crust) and the ooey-gooey-figgy filling is oh-so-good.

Fig & Oat Bars

(from Stetted)

2 C fresh figs, diced

¼ C honey

2 C oats

⅔ C flour

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

1 stick butter

Preheat oven to 350 and line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper. 

Combine figs and honey in a small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until honey is dissolved and figs start to break down.  Mash up a bit with a potato masher.  Set aside while you get the oatmeal mixture ready.

In a food processor, blitz oats, flour, salt, and cinnamon until the oats are broken up to your liking.  Cut butter in to cubes and add to mixture, pulsing until incorporated and the mixture is crumbly.

Take about half the oat mixture and press it into the pan evenly, forming the bottom crust.  

Spread the fig mixture over the top, then scatter the rest of the oat mixtures over it. 

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden brown.  Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Assuming you make 9 bars, here's the nutrition breakdown (calculated using this tool):

265.4 Calories

11.6g Fat

27.1mg Cholesterol

139.1mg Sodium

49.8g Carbs

5.8g Dietary Fiber

17.9g Sugar

3.8g Protein

It's richer than a Poptart - more calories and more fat, but more fiber and protein.  Less sodium.  I'll take it.

And I just love having a little display like this in my kitchen: