Not That Good For You, but At Least They Are Sugar Free Apricot Cereal Bars

I have a new love in my life.  Its gooey and crumbly, sweet and tangy.  If I could eat ice cream it would be perfect with it...

 

When Kev and I lived in London, we had a weekend tradition of taking the Tube down to Kew Gardens.  While of course we would go to see the glory that is the royal botanics, our path would more often than not meander through the quaint wee streets of Kew, collecting a range of picnic ingredients on our way. 

 

Ahh the luxury of time in those days.  Picking over exotic picnic items, stopping at the Kew Gardener cafe for a pit stop on our arduous journey.  Eating scones the size of grapefruits and reading thick wedges of newspaper. There was a lovely health food shop, called Oliver's, the magnetic pull of which was just too hard to resist.  We never left without two things...I always needed a tub of the lightest, fluffiest hummous I have ever found and a sugar free apricot slice from their deli.

 

How I loved those apricot slices. They were deliciously sticky and not overly sweet.  I have thought of them so many times since moving up North of the Border. Well, a recurring health issue has meant that I  no longer eat refined wheat or sugar.  After two weeks of my sugar free life, I found myself with a hankering for something sweet that could not be met with the various pieces of fruit we had in the house.  I needed...an apricot bar.

 

Digging through the internet, I couldn't find a recipe I liked, so I made one up.  And its delicious and crumbly and sweet and tangy and very very more-ish...

 

 

Not That Good For You, but At Least They Are Sugar Free Apricot Cereal Bars

 

Ingredients:

Filling:

2 cups dried apricots (unsulphered if you can get them)

2 cups water

 

Crumble:

1.5 cups of porridge oats

1.5 cups of brown or spelt flour

150g (3/4 cup) of softened butter or margerine 

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup of Agave syrup (or more if you really like things sweet)

1T of Vanilla extract

1T of Almond extract

 

1. Simmer apricots and water on a medium heat for about 15 minutes or until the apricots are really soft.  There shouldn't be much water left in the pan.  Purée.

 

2. Mix crumble ingredients until it forms a dough. 

 

3. Spread 1/2 of the dough mix on the bottom of the pan.  Then spread the apricot purée over the top.  Cover the apricot layer with the rest of the dough (you kind of pat out wee rounds of the dough and lay them across the jammy bit.

 

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 360F/180C