This week, Roy decided he wanted to try his hand at creating something reminiscent of the old 12th Night Cakes and Plum Porridge he learned about last week. He was fascinated by the idea of the porridge, but in Australia porridge seemed too hot to really enjoy at Christmas time. He thought he might be able to make a spiced oat bar, using his Great Grandma’s Flaked Oat Biscuit recipe, and so set out to experiment. He was happy with the soft, chewy and spicy bars he created and decided to share the recipe with his online friends. So this week Roy Creates Historic Plum Porridge Inspired Oat Bars!
You Will Need:
- 250 grams of butter
- 250 grams of sugar
- 350 grams of flaked oats. Flaked oats are the quick cooking oats which have been finely cut, not rolled oats. If you have rolled oats, pulse them in a food processor a few times to break them up
- 2 tablespoons of golden syrup or treacle
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- ½ a small teaspoon of ground ginger
- ½ a small teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- 1 cup of mixed dried fruit
- ½ a cup of dried cranberries
- Orange essence to taste. If you don’t have any orange essence, just use vanilla or leave it out entirely or put a little grated orange rind in instead!
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius and line a lamington tin with baking paper
- Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup together in a saucepan.
- While the butter mix is melting, mix together the oats and fruit
- Add the spices and essence to the melted mix and combine
- Pour the butter, sugar and spice mix over the oats and fruit and thoroughly mix together.
- Press the mix into the tin and squash firmly
- Bake for 30 to 45 minutes (or until it is browned and slightly firm – it will be bubbling and slightly soft when it comes out of the oven but it will set as it cools)
- Score the slice into pieces just after you take it out of the oven
- Before the slice is completely cold, lift it out of the tin and cut into individual pieces
- Allow to cool completely and store in an airtight container