Honey and Peanut Butter Booster Bars

Making your own breakfast bars is really quite easy. The ingredients are fairly common, meaning that you probably have most of them in your pantry. Basically I melted the first 6 ingredients slowly in a pan, stirred in the dried ingredients then placed in the oven and baked 30 minutes. Truly the longest part is waiting for the bars to cool as they must cool completely to cut easily.

This recipe is adapted from the cookbook "River Cottage Every Day", by Hugh Fearnley - Whittingstall. What a great bar these turned out to be. As I pulled them from the oven smells of honey and oats permeated the house. The color is golden and the bars are chewy and laced with raisins and assorted seeds. Delicious!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup no-sugar added crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup honey, (plus a little more to drizzle in the end)
1 orange (zest)
1 lemon (zest)
1 1/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup dried fruit such as raisins, chopped apricots, prunes, cranberries or dates (I used raisins)
1 cup mixed nuts, divided (meaning 3/4 cup then 1/4 cup) such as pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, flax seed and sesame
( I used all but pumpkin)

To prepare:

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

Grease and line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper.

Put the butter, sugar, peanut butter, honey, and grated citrus zests in a deep saucepan over very low heat. Stir occasionally until melted.

Stir the oats, dried fruit, and three-quarters of the seeds into the melted butter mixture until thoroughly combined. Spread mixture out evenly in prepared pan. Scatter remaining seeds over the surface then drizzle with honey.

Bake approximately 30 minutes until golden in the center and along the edges.

Let cool completely in pan.

Bars will keep for 5 to 7 days in a airtight container. Makes 16 bars.