Is your New Year’s resolution to eat more whole foods to fuel your body?
Looking to recreate you or your kids’ favorite snack, without all the processed stuff and preservatives? Try your hand at making these fruit bars from scratch. They’re sweet and snackable, but full of fiber from the dates, whole wheat flour, and real fruit filling. Pack them in your lunch as your sweet treat, as a hiking snack, or however you choose to enjoy them.
Ingredients for the dough:
¾ cup whole wheat flour (from our bulk section)
1 cup unbleached white flour (from our bulk section)
⅓ cup Field Day® organic brown sugar
¾ teaspoon Field Day® organic baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons Organic Valley® organic butter, cold
1 teaspoon Field Day organic vanilla extract
2 local eggs
Ingredients for the Filling:
6 ounces fresh organic strawberries (or fruit of your choice)
4 ounces organic pitted Medjool dates
½ tablespoon local honey
Juice from half an organic lemon
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (from our bulk section)
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves (from our bulk section)
⅛ teaspoon Field Day® organic ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions:
In a food processor, add your flours, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pulse lightly to mix.
Cut your cold butter into cubes and add it to the food processor.
Pulse until a sandy dough forms.
Whisk your eggs and a vanilla extract together. Pour them into the dough and pulse until a thick dough forms.
Remove your dough from the food processor and form it into a disk. Wrap it in a reusable bees-wrap or cling film and put it in the refrigerator to cool while you make your filling.
Before you start on the filling, preheat your oven to 350F°.
Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
Chop up your strawberries, or fruit of your choice, into small pieces. Do the same with your dates.
Add your fruit, dates and honey to a small saucepan. As it simmers on medium-low heat, mash it with a fork to smooth the mixture. Mash and simmer it until it reaches a thick but spreadable jam-like consistency.
Set your fruit filling aside.
Remove your dough from the refrigerator and cut it into 2 halves.
Roll out the halves into long rectangles of equal length.
Put one rectangle on your prepared baking sheet.
Spread your fruit filling in the center of one of the dough rectangles.
Cover with the other sheet of dough.
Pinch the sides together to close the bar. Smooth it out as best as you can.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.
Allow to cool completely before cutting. Keeps for a week in the refrigerator.
-Delaney Blomstrom
