Fall Fig Bars with Irish Oats
john barry
Wine and harvest festival. “Irish girls have all the fun!”
Morning Walk
Fall in Cedarburg is so beautiful. Each time I look out my window and the wind blows the trees a bit, a whole bunch of rust-colored leaves literally FALL off the trees. I can’t help but think, over and over again, “This is what Fall is supposed to look like.” Fall is also brisk early-morning walks and sunny warm-not-hot days. The only problem is what comes after, but I’m trying to embrace and enjoy each season as much as I can and it’s hard not to when you live here. We love it here and have met so many incredible people and feel lucky to have found this community that has been so welcoming to our business and family.
My parents live in sunny southern California - I may be jealous in a few months when the beauty of having “seasons” loses its luster. They have a bunch of fruit trees - Passion fruit, oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes, Asian pears, persimmons and figs. Recently, when my Mom went to visit a friend for a week, Dad turned his attention to harvesting figs. They have SO many. It’s just crazy. It reminds me of one year when I had way too many cherry tomatoes for one family to ever consume. I was totally overwhelmed and decided that I would never again let my garden stress me out like that. I’ve achieved that goal, but the downside is very little homegrown produce. Anyway, if you know my father, you know that when he sets his mind to something, it gets DONE. Unlike me, cowed by cherry tomatoes, he’s never met a challenge he cannot conquer. His natural tenacity, paired with his inability to tolerate waste of any kind ended up on my doorstep about a week ago. In a box. A box filled with several jars of homemade fig preserves and bags of dried figs. My youngest and I immediately ate a whole bunch of the dried figs with a big chunk of brie. They were delicious, soft and sweet. Then we tried the preserves, which Dad makes with lemon and not too much sugar. Divine.
Serendipity stepped in a few days later when I got a recipe in my inbox for Vegan Walnut Fig Bars. They looked amazing and I knew I could simplify the recipe by using fig preserves instead of the proposed bar filling. The recipe called for oats, one ingredient I always have on hand, if not in my cupboard, then just down the road. Another bonus. My bars were not vegan. I used eggs, mostly out of laziness because I have no idea where my stash of chia seeds are or if I even have one anymore. However, these could easily be made vegan by subbing 1 1/2 tablespoons of chia seeds and 1/4 cup of water for the eggs. Using oats instead of wheat flour means that they are also gluten free - though some oats contain small amounts of gluten so if you are allergic to gluten, make sure to use gluten-free oats.
These bars were easy to make. Filling, not too sweet and perfect for a breakfast, snack on the go, or lunch between conference calls. They can be made sweeter, more like a bar-style cookie but knowing that I would probably end up eating most of them, I made them less sweet and even added an additional sprinkle of sea salt to the top before baking. I questioned whether I should increase the sweetener in hopes of appealing more to the kids but I’m glad I decided against it. My two older kids wouldn’t even try one because “new things, ick” (the main reason I didn’t alter them for their little taste buds, fool me once...) and my younger two LOVED them just as they are -salty and mildly sweet. #winning
Walnut Fig Bars
Adapted from Sarah Britton’s recipe in My New Roots
INGREDIENTS
For the Crust
2 large eggs
3 cups raw walnuts chopped
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup fig preserves or applesauce
4 tablespoons honey*
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
*The preserves I used were not overly sweet so this was the perfect amount of additional sweetness for me, but it’s not much for the quantity of the recipe. You may want to add more, or add less if the filling you use is quite sweet.
For Filling
~2 cups fig preserves*
*these would be great with any kind of preserves or a quick mix of dried fruit and applesauce which is what was used in the original recipe
DIRECTIONS
Make the crust
Put 2 cups of walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet, place in the oven, and set the oven to 350°F (180°C). Toast walnuts while the oven is warming up (depending on how fast your oven heats up, this could take 5 to 15 minutes—they will start to smell good when they are getting toasted, watch closely after that so that they don’t burn). Take the walnuts out to cool and leave the oven on.
In a food processor, or blender, blend or process 1 1/2 cup of oats on the highest setting until it becomes a coarse flour, about 30 seconds. Add toasted walnuts and process until the mixture is the texture of sand. Add eggs, fig preserves, honey, coconut oil, and vanilla. Pulse until moistened.
In a medium bowl, combine the rest of the rolled oats, salt, and baking powder. Add oat mixture and fold until thoroughly combined.
Take about 2/3 of the crust mixture and press it firmly into the baking sheet. I used a quarter sheet pan. You can spray your hands with oil or wet them so that the dough doesn’t stick while you are pressing it into the pan.
Spread fig preserves over crust.
Roughly chop 1 cup walnuts and sprinkle over top; firmly press nuts into filling.
Spread the remaining crust mixture over the walnuts and try to cover evenly. Sprinkle with sea salt, optional.
Bake until slightly golden on top, about 30 minutes.
Let cool completely before cutting into 16 bars. Store in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 5 days.
Process and fold together crust mixture.
Spread crust mixture into bottom of baking sheet.
Spread filling on top.
Add chopped walnuts - untoasted, they will toast in the oven.
Top with remaining crust mixture.