Procedure1 Preheat oven to 325F/160C. Line a 13×9 inch pan with aluminum foil and grease it well with cooking spray.

2 In a large bowl mix together oats, cranberries, seeds, nuts and chocolate chips.

3 Add condensed milk and mix thoroughly. Also stir in the oil and applesauce until blended.

4 Spread evenly in prepared pan. Use a spatula to smoothen it. If you feel that the oats sticks to the spatula, grease it with cooking spray and smooth it out.

5 Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until top is lightly browned. I felt mine was not done after 25 minutes so gave it another 6 minutes. By then it had browned a little.

6 Place the pan on a rack to cool slightly, then carefully lift the foil and place it on the wire rack. When it is cool completely cut it into bars. You can either go for the usual rectangular shaped bars (like the store bought ones) or squares. I cut them into squares to cut the calorie intake. Dipping the knife in hot water will enable easy cutting.

Taste As per the original recipe these bars were supposed to be crispy because it used 1/2 cup melted butter/margarine. Since I had used applesauce (to sub for 1/2 the fat and little condensed milk) the bars were chewy, which we all liked very much. My son loves it very much and takes it for lunch everyday (for dessert). It has the perfect blend of sweetness from the condensed milk and chocolate chips, tanginess from the dried cranberries and little salt from the sunflower seeds.

This recipe is a good basic recipe where you can play with the combination of nuts, seeds and dried fruits of your choice.

My Notes1 The original recipe used raisins, but I went with dried cranberries because I felt the sourness from it will balance the overall sweetness of the bars. You could try chopped apricots too.

2 The other change I made was using slivered almonds instead of chopped peanuts. Again here too you can use the nuts of your choice.

3 The recipe had called for 1 can condensed milk (14oz/398ml). Since I live in Canada now, I found that the Eagle Brand condensed milk I get here was only 300 ml. So I used 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce to make good the difference. Also it required 1/2 cup of melted butter/margarine. I decided to use 1/4 cup of canola oil and 1/4 cup of applesauce instead. After measuring 1/4 cup applesauce I found that I had only another 1/4 cup left in the jar, so I stirred in that too. So totally 1 cup unsweetened applesauce.

I think this is the reason the bars took extra time while baking and also for the chewiness. So adjust the baking time according to the ingredients you use.

4 In recipes like these (bars) and few other recipes where chocolate chips is used in large quantity, I replace it with 1/2 the quantity of mini chips. So I used 1/2 cup of mini chips instead of the 1 cup of regular chips mentioned in the original recipe.

Procedure 1 Preheat the oven at 350F.

2 Grease and dust a 13×9 inch pan with little flour.

3 In a large bowl whisk together whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground ginger (if using) and light brown sugar.

4 Also add the chopped dried fruits and nuts of your choice. Make sure that the dried fruits are not lumped together. Use your fingers mix it thoroughly.

5 In a liquid measuring mug, measure 3/4th cup of buttermilk and vanilla extract; whisk it nicely.

6 Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix it well. Since it’s a lot of dried fruits and nuts, chances are the flour mixture in the bottom may not be combined well.

7 Spread the batter into the prepared pan and use a spatula to evenly press it.

8 I baked for 30 minutes first and then slowly increased the time and around 37th minute took the pan from the oven. Check the center of the cake with a toothpick to see if it’s done and time it accordingly because ovens may vary.

9 Once out of the oven, leave the pan on a wire rack and let it cool completely before cutting it. Let it cool completely; don’t be in a hurry or else you will end up with broken pieces. Anyways the bars taste better the next day and gets even better later, so be patient. These bars will keep good for 2 weeks in room temperature and store for months in the refrigerator.

My Notes 1 Any combination of nuts and dried fruits can be used in this fruitcake/bars. The only thing to be followed is that it should be 3 cups of nuts and 3 cups of dried fruits. This time I used one pound (16oz) box of Old English style fruit and citrus peel instead of dried fruits and a mixture of cashews, pistachios and hazelnuts.

2 The fruit and citrus peel mix saves the time chopping dry fruits into small pieces and also the bars taste exactly like the fruit cake we get from stores. But I have to agree that it’s not as healthy as using actual dried fruits because the fruit is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. I used it because I had bought that tub in a whim and had to use it.

3 The original recipe uses 3/4th cup of brown sugar, but I used only 1/2 cup because the fruit mix is also sweetened.

4 I used 1.5% fat buttermilk. The buttermilk which we get in US is pretty thick, it’s more liked thinned yogurt. I did not dilute it with water because I did not want it to lose its acidity since we are replacing it for 3 eggs in the recipe.

5 As soon as I removed the pan from the oven the cake looked pale/whitish on the top. I had done the toothpick test and it came out clean and that’s why I took out the pan. When I saw the cake I was worried may be the buttermilk had curdled or something. But as it cooled, it looked very normal with a brown color. Also the bar was little hard on the day I baked. I thought I had baked too long. Again by the next day it had become soft and got only even better after that.

Procedure 1 Preheat oven to 350F (325F for glass baking dish).

2 If not using ready to use graham cracker crumbs, place the crackers in a ziploc bag, seal it and use a rolling pin to powder it. Alternatively pulse it a few times in a food processor.

3 Cut the butter into small pieces, place it in a microwave safe bowl and melt it. First time it for 15 seconds, stir it once and keep increasing the time as needed. Mine took 1 minute to melt completely. Let it cool enough to handle with your hands.

4 In a bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs and butter; mix well.

5 Press crumb mixture firmly on bottom of 13×9 inch baking pan.

6 Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over the crumb mixture.

7 First add 1/4 cup of the semi sweet chocolate chips evenly over the condensed milk layer. Next add the coconut similarly.

8 Evenly spread the nuts over the coconut layer. Then top it off with the dried cranberries and the remaining 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips.

9 Bake 25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely. I kept it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Cut into bars or diamonds. Store the cookie bars covered.

My Notes 1 Always remember that miniature chocolate chips can be substituted for the regular ones and only half as much as the regular is required if using the mini chips. For instance, the original recipe mentions to use 2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips, which is way too much sugar and calories. I substituted it with mere 1/2 cup of miniature chocolate chips.

2 Dried cranberries was also not mentioned in the recipe. I added it to balance the sweetness of the bars.

3 I think lining the pan with aluminum foil and then layering it with the crumbs and other toppings will make the clean up and cutting easier, because you just lift the entire bar with foil and cut it outside. I lined it with wax paper, the clean up was easy and I was able to lift it up, but the paper got stuck to the bars a little bit.

4 During the Christmas season (or Diwali) if you plan to bake goodies and give it to friends and relatives preserve the plastic boxes which you get while buying strawberries, baby spinach, blueberries etc. You can use these boxes to gift your homemade cookies etc. Below I have used a box which came with baby spinach. On the cover there was a big sticker of the product. I was wondering what to do and I got this idea. Anyhow I had to write the ingredients used in the bars because of the food allergies prevalent here, so that people in the office can decide whether they can have it or not. So I cut the plain side of a greeting card which I had received, wrote the ingredients in that card and taped it on top of that sticker.

Step-by-Step Procedure 1. Stir together cereal, dried fruit, nuts and cinnamon (if using) in large bowl.

2. Put syrup, almond butter and soy margarine (whichever you are using) in large, microwave-safe measuring cup.

3. Microwave 1 and 1/2 minutes on high, or until hot and margarine has melted.

4. Stir well, then pour over cereal mixture.

5. Stir to coat.

6. Dampen hands with cold water.

7. Press cereal mixture firmly into 9×9 inch baking pan (I didn’t have this, so I used 13×9 inch nonstick baking pan), re-wetting hands if necessary to keep mixture from sticking.

8. Freeze 30 minutes. I covered the pan with plastic wrap before putting it in the freezer.

9. Cut into 15 bars, and store in refrigerator up to 5 days.

My Notes 1. For toasting almonds, heat a frying pan on the stove and add the sliced almonds, toss it for a couple of seconds. Be careful not to burn the almonds.

2. If you are not into organic stuff, you can find almond butter very cheap in Trader Joe’s. The organic brand is also cheaper there when compared to the price in the regular grocery store. The grocery store near my house carries only Nature’s Promise Organic Almond Butter which is $12, but the organic butter in Trader Joe’s is only $8 and if you choose to buy the inorganic it’s only $4.59. That’s a considerable amount of savings for me. You can also make your own almond butter.

To Make Crust

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. In a large mixing bowl put butter, brown sugar and cream it using an electric mixer in medium speed until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in salt.

To Make Filling

1. Place butter, brown sugar, honey, granulated sugar, heavy cream in a saucepan over high heat.
2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until mixture coats the back of a spoon, about 1 minute.
3. Remove pan from heat; stir in salt, nuts and vanilla.
4. Pour filling into the cooled crust.
5. Bake until filling bubbles, 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Carefully transfer it to wire rack to cool completely.
7. Run a paring knife around edges of the pan and invert onto cooling rack. (See My Notes)
8. Invert again onto a cutting board.
9. With a sharp knife cut into 1 by 3 inch bars.

My Notes1. Instead of using all butter, I used a combination of butter and Smart Balance 50/50 Unsalted Blend.

2. In the original recipe, stand mixer was used to prepare the dough for the crust. Since I don’t have one I used a hand held mixer. It’s a bit difficult if you are doing it alone because, you have to cream the mixture, simultaneously scrape the edges and also add 1 cup of flour at a time. I was able to do it with the help of my mother and my husband. So be sure to catch hold of your husband while preparing these bars. If you are going to use a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment in medium speed.

3. For making the crust, the dough has to be spread evenly in a 9×13 inch pan. This was a little bit tricky. So my husband gave a wonderful idea to do the job neatly. After spreading the dough with a rubber spatula, he asked me to cut a wax paper to the size of the pan and lay it over the dough and then smooth it with my hands. Then my mother gave the idea of using a small vessel on top of the paper to get a smooth finish. Both the ideas worked out very well.

4. I was not able to invert the bar on the cooling rack because it was sticking to the pan. So I cut them into small bars in the pan itself and removed it using a spatula.