Buttery, sweet and packed full of fruit and nuts. These snack bars are a delicious (and moreish!) on-the-go treat!
I have a lot of love for the humble snack bar. A little treat; usually packed full with oats that’s a little sweet, a little salty, very buttery and generally fills a hole till your next mealtime. They can be fancy or plain, but they’re pretty much always guaranteed to be delicious! Are you a fan??
These came about as I’d bought some semi-dried apricots with the intention of making some apricot danishes. Only to realise that I should have bought tinned apricots…fail! Anyway, I still fancied baking with them that day so I had a rummage in my baking cupboard and remembered I had some oats that needed using up. And ta dahh, the snack bar idea of dreams was born.
Realistically, so long as you have the basic ingredients you can use whichever nuts and fruit you fancy. You could even throw some chocolate chips in if you wanted! Snack bars like these are super versatile which is why I love them so much. You can tailor them to whats already in your cupboards and what you and your family like best.
For my snack bars I used apricots, raisins, almonds (I cant not include almonds, I love them so much!) and pecans. I was originally going to drizzle melted dark chocolate over the finished bars too, but in the end I decided they would be delicious as they are. But that’s another option for you! So many snack bar options!!
So how do you create oaty snack bars?
Bars like these are ridiculously easy to create and take noo time at all. All you need is one saucepan and one baking tin. The butter, sugar and honey needs to be melted together. Then the other ingredients can be stirred in, tipped into the baking tin and baked. Voila. That is it. Honestly, I told you it was super easy!
You do need to wait for them to cool completely until you eat them which is probably the hardest bit! But these make great snacks for a walking day, a breakfast on the go or a deskbound elevenses. Whenever you eat them I really hope you like them! They are so moreish, chewy and deliciously buttery!
On with the recipe!
Fruit’N’Nut Oaty Snack Bars
Ingredients
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 125 g soft light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp runny honey
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 25 g almonds
- 25 g pecans
- 35 g raisins
- 40 g semi-dried apricots
- 175 g porridge oats
Instructions
- Firstly, preheat the oven to 150C/130C Fan/Gas Mark 2 and line a 8x10inch tin with baking paper. Then set aside.
- Place the butter, sugar, honey and salt into a medium saucepan and place over a medium-high heat. Cook stirring until the butter has melted and everything is combined. Then take off the heat and stir in the nuts, fruit and oats. Stir until well combined and then pour into the prepared baking tin.
- Press the mixture down into an even layer, then bake for 35-40 minutes. The bars will be done when the mixture looks set in the middle and is golden brown. Leave to cool completely in the tin.
- Slice into 8 bars and serve.
