Dried Fruits and Seeds Bars

Tweet Calling a snack bar "healthy" is subjective. I can easily call these bars healthy, but that doesn't mean they are good for you or for you.Some people follow a low carb diet, others just sugar free, lots are trying to go fat free, me - doing my best to come up with meals as low in cholesterol as possible.

If you're on a strict cholesterol diet unfortunately these bars, as I baked them, are not for you. One of the ingredients is an egg yolk.  The good news is it can be replaced with an egg white, which I intend to do next time. Also, I'd like to try and use egg substitute, never used it, still a little skeptic. If you have any advice, would be much appreciated.
If you're on a fat free diet, well, although the bars don't call for butter or any oil they have lots of seeds, which are high in fats, but the good ones :)
If you're on a low carb diet, I did some Maths and a bar has around 11 grams of carbs. But, you can easily use other dried fruits, lower in sugars. I used mostly golden raisins which are quite high in carbs. Dried apricots, cherries, cranberries, blueberries can be used also.

I stumbled across this recipe while looking for some snack for a picnic with friends. They turned out much better than I expected. They are not dry, crunchy or chewy. Perfect for kids and even grown up to munch. I twisted the recipe a little bit, leaving the second egg yolk and the 1/3 cup of sugar out. Also used some chia seeds instead of sesame seeds.

To make them is pretty easy, just throw all the ingredients in a bowl, stir a little bit and off to the oven. It just can't get any easier!
Let's turn the oven on and make some dried fruits and seeds bars.*adapted from cookie and biscuit

In a big bowl put 10 ounces (280gr) unsweetened applesauce.Add 1 1/4 cup (chopped) dried fruits. I used almost a cup or raisins and little over 1/4 cup currants.

now add 1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

3 tablespoons chia seeds

1 cup rolled oats (not the quick cooking ones)

2/3 cup unsweetened coconut

2/3 cup self raising flour

and 3 egg whites + 1 egg yolk. You can use 4 egg whites or 2 eggs instead.

Mix everything until evenly combined and put the mixture into your brownie (11x9 inch) baking pan.

Bake in preheated oven (400F) for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool in the pan. Cut into bars. Yields 24.

Enjoy!


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