Oat-y
I try to keep within the theme of healthy eating/baking, but that can be hard. There are many successful food bloggers out there that can produce clean, healthy recipes all the time — I’m still striving towards that, but I haven’t gotten there quite yet. One of the biggest obstacles to healthy eating is the cost of all the ingredients. A bag of sugar is about 3 times less than a bag of stevia, at least in my grocery store. Gluten free alternative flours are prohibitively expensive. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s worth it, but it’s also can be hard to justify when money is tight. I also don’t have many baking appliances (someone please get me a food processor and an electric mixer, I beg of you), which limits a lot of desserts that involve using dates as a sweetener. Working on a paltry graduate school budget, I do what I can.
So I aim for healthier, and this is a healthier version of standard oat jam cookie bars. Whole wheat flour for regular flour, less preserves, and a butter alternative lighten this recipe up a little bit.
Adapted from Allrecipes
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup smart balance spread (or butter substitute)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 + 2 tbs cup peach-apricot preserves (or any preserve you want)
1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Grease an 8 x 8″ pan and set aside.
2. Cream the smart balance and the brown sugar together. Mix in the oats, wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and walnuts. Using your hands (don’t be afraid), mix the dry and wet ingredients together. The dough will be crumbly.
3. Layer 2/3 of the dough into the 8 x 8″ pan, and pat it down firmly with the back of a spoon. Spread the preserves over the bottom layer. Crumble the remaining dough on top of the preserves and pat down firmly with the back of a spoon.
4. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Let it cool completely before cutting into squares. It makes roughly 16, 2″ squares.
More Sour Cream 