This is a recipe that was a twist on an 18th century bannock recipe. I make them up, carry them with me hiking or camping and often give many away. They are healthy and expand as you drink water with them so they really stay with you when you need a meal but only have time to munch a cookie while walking. They keep about two weeks at room temperature with moderate humidity.
Better Breakfast Bar Bannock
Prep time: 10 minutes once you've done it before
You Need:
2 cups oatmeal (plain)
1 cup Whole wheat flour
½ cup natural sugar (available in groceries now)
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp cinnamon
1/3 cup Craisins or raisins (your choice)
1/3 cup chopped or diced almonds
1 stick butter
1/6 cup Extra Virgin Olive oil ( or 5/6 cup olive oil and skip the butter)*
1/3 cup water
Making the batter:
Place the 2 cups of oatmeal, 1 cup of whole wheat flour, ½ cup of natural sugar, ¼ tsp salt, 2 tbsp of cinnamon, and 1/3 cup of almond chips (or other nut your choice) in a large mixing bowl and dry mix really well with a wooden spoon. Melt the stick of butter and add it all, mixing it as well as possible throughout the dry blend. Add 1/6 cup of extra virgin olive oil and again mix as thoroughly as possible into the blend. Add 1/3 cup of warm water and again mix thoroughly. Finally, mix in 1/3 cup of Craisins or raisins. The mix will appear to be still dry even if well blended. It will look like it will never adhere together in the oven. Using your hands, knead the batter in the bowl and press down into the bowl repeatedly until it looks to be a thick damp pasty consistency ball.
Mold the Bars: Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Place your batter ball in a wax paper lined 9" round pie baking dish. Press out all the air and work the edges down until you have an approximately ¾" thick "pie" in the dish. It should appear damp on the top. If it looks dry, it has to be remixed and re-pressed into the dish. Sprinkle and spread about 2 tsp natural sugar over the whole top. Using the end of a spatula, score 8 wedges in the "pie" before cooking. Cook at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes. (Guarantee complete wedges, cool completely before removing from dish.)
Some hints:
1. Craisins are healthier and taste better than raisins in these bars.
2. Almonds are the healthiest and most delicious nuts for these bars.
3. The secret to these bars remaining attractive and whole is to cool them completely before removal. I often cut them while warm but if pryed up warm, they crumble!
4. Pre-score the wedges or if you forget, carefully cut them with a large, sharp chef's chopping knife after removing whole warm pie to a cutting board. Once cool, the bars are really hard to cut neatly.
5. These store dry and room temp for two weeks without becoming stale or moldy.
6. Almond bars may be made easily by eliminating the cinnamon and mixing the final 1/3 cup of water for the batter half and half with almond extract.
7. Trippling the recipe will net you an entire cookie sheet full of these things approx 14"X 22"