Not only does baking cookies warm up your kitchen and make your house smell delicious, they are also fun to make and good to eat.  We don’t eat a lot of sweet things, so baking cookies is a real treat for us.  I made this recipe last night just from what I had on hand in the pantry, and turned out to be a sort of blend between a pie, a crumble, and a fig newton – if you can imagine that.  I made two pans of different flavors, and the first pan was almost gone before it had properly cooled down (the children ate it, I swear!).

If you can’t eat grains, check out this recipe for a grain-free Christmas cookie version.  You also could sub coconut oil in the crust for a vegan fruit bar cookie.

Fruit Bar Cookies

Fruit Filling:

2 cups  dried fruit (apricots, prunes, dates, figs, cherries, apples and raisins, etc.  I usually use only one kind of dried fruit per recipe, but apple, raisin and cinnamon would be good! )

1-2 Tablespoons coconut sugar or Rapadura (optional)

1- 1 1/2 cups water

1. Cut up the dried fruit and remove any stems (if you are using figs).
2. Put the cut-up dried fruit in a pan with the water and optional sugar (I would only add sugar if the fruit you are using isn’t very sweet – i.e for sour cherries, or maybe dried apples).
3. Bring to a boil and cook about 10-15 minutes, or until the fruit is soft and the water has cooked down.  It should be mushy, not watery.  You can mash it with a potato masher to get a better texture.

Crust:

1 cup butter

1 cup coconut sugar or Rapadura

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 F.
2. In a mixing bowl, blend the coconut sugar and butter together with a fork until well-mixed.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, soda and oats.  Blend the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture, sort of crumbling it together with your hands.
4. Press half the crust into an oblong pan (I used a 13×9″ pan) that is lined with parchment paper.  If you leave a couple of inches of paper around the edges, you will have “handles” that are helpful in removing the baked cookies from the pan.  Pour the filling over (see recipe below).  Press the remaining crust on top and bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned.  Allow to cool a little before removing from the pan and slicing into bars.

 

Make sure you save some to leave out for Santa!