Apricot Cardamom Breakfast Bars

Are you noticing a pattern here lately? Salad, bar, salad...and here you go another bar. It's summer, and I'm still cooking for one. What can I say. I'm all about cooking things that I can eat all week.

These little beauties combine a few of my favorite things: cardamom, dried fruit, nuts, o and food shaped into a bar. Perfect.


They're chewy and little sweet, with some crunchy and some crumb. I made these a few weeks ago to take with me to Chicago. That's how I learned that they don't really travel well. They kind of turn into breakfast bar dust. So if you want to make them and take them, individually wrap them. Don't throw them into a gallon ziplock and put them in the bottom of your lap top bag. Just sayin.

I first saw these as marathon cookies on 101 Cookbooks (of course I immediately starred them), and after looking at a few other versions online, I came up with this combination. Then I turned them into bars, because that just sounds more appropriate for breakfast than cookies.



Apricot Cardamom Breakfast Bars
Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

You can change the combination of the dried fruit and nuts and/or the spices for a different flavored bar. Next time I think I'm going to go with ginger, pepitas, and dried cranberries.

Ingredients:
2 cups oatmeal, divided
1 cup whole wheat (or white whole wheat) flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom
1/4 tsp. salt
zest of one large lemon
15 oz. can white kidney or navy beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup agave nectar (or real maple syrup)*
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1 cup chopped dried apricots

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-In the bowl of a food processor, pulse 1 cup of oatmeal until it resembles a course flour. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt and pulse to combine. Pour dry mixture into a large bowl, then add the other cup of oatmeal and the lemon zest and stir.
-In the bowl of the food processor, pulse the beans until they are pureed. Add the butter, agave nectar, egg, and vanilla and pulse to combine.
-Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Stir in the pine nuts and the dried apricots.
-Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit inside a baking sheet. Dust the parchment paper and your hands lightly with flour. Scoop the dough onto the parchment paper and shape into a long rectangle using your hands. The dough is sticky, but move quickly and it will come together fairly easily. (Another option if to refrigerate the dough for an hour.) Using a sharp knife, cut the dough in half lengthwise, and then into six sections top to bottom (for 12 total bars). Don't separate the bars, just make the cut with the knife so they will be easier to separate once they are baked.
-Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. 5 minutes before they are done, separate the bars so the edges will brown. Use a knife if they are not coming apart easily.

*You can substitute 1 cup packed brown sugar.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies w/ Coconut

I'm supposed to be gearing up for marathon training this winter, so I really need to stop this whole baking experiment I started a little while ago, or at least shift to whole wheat, flax seed, no-butter baking, i.e. cardboard manufacturing. But I felt like these cookies were at least a step in the right direction since they had oatmeal in them (and everyone knows oatmeal is a runner's best friend).

I got the inspiration for these cookies from Potbelly's. On the rare occasion when I buy my lunch (like today) I always go to Potbelly's. The sandwiches are fantastic, even if the lines are ridiculously long. And every time I go I have to summon all my willpower not to buy one of their oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Sometimes I lose this battle. Oatmeal is definitely my favorite breakfast food, but I never really liked oatmeal cookies until I tried the ones at Potbelly's. Probably because I never had an oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips in it, always the ones with those nasty little brown raisins (I reaaaaally dislike regular raisins, white raisins and craisins are great though.)

This is my attempt at a close approximation to their cookies, although I'm sure it's not exactly right, and of course I added coconut which is not--as far as I can tell--in theirs. The coconut helps to keep the cookies moist and chewy and adds a little sweetness. Now I have to admit this is the third time I made these. The first time, I didn't have very much oatmeal left so I tried to make these with only 2 cups of oatmeal. The result was paper thin crunchy cookies. Poppop makes something like them that he calls lace cookies, but mine were not nearly as good. The second time was pretty tasty, but a little too-oatmeally and dense. The third time was perfect. (I feel like Goldilocks.) This is what I did the third time.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies w/ Coconut
Yields 25-30 cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup dark chocolate chunks
2/3 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread parchment paper on baking sheets or spray with non stick cooking spray.
-Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
-Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low until incorporated, then raise the speed to high and continue until the mixture is fluffy. Add the brown sugar to the mixture, beating with the mixer, then add the eggs one at time. Mix in the vanilla.
-Add the flour mixture slowly, using the mixer to combine the dry and wet ingredients.
-When the flour is fully incorporate, fold in the oatmeal using a spatula. Stir in the chocolate chips and the coconut.
-Spoon about a tablespoon of dough onto the baking sheet for each cookie, leave 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 12-15 minutes in the middle of the oven, or until the cookies are just brown on top but still spongy. Let the cookies cool slightly on the baking sheet, then transfer to a rack. Store in tupperware so they stay moist.

(If you're cookies start to get hard, put a piece of sliced white bread in the tupperware with them. They will get moist again. I learned that from an innkeeper in Gettysburg.)