Fruity Oaty Bars

After a long, and yet not very diligent search, I cobbled together my own personal recipe for fruity oaty bars. Why you ask? Simply put, I'm in touch with my inner Sci-Fi geek and I thought it would be cool. Or, if that's not good enough, I wanted to make my own energy bars for camping.



The search began with my ingredient list. Fruit and oats, how hard could this be? Well what fruit? I like cranberries, and apples, pineapples, cherries, raisins, bananas aren't an option due to certain health issues in the Sigboy household. I even considered prunes and dates, but I want everybody to eat them. I ruled out dried pineapple because I didn't know how it would take the oven, it would also probably be too acidic. Apples were a serious contender, but they also lost out because of the baking issue.



Without further ado, the recipe:
2 1/2 cups oats
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup finely chopped homemade honey roasted almonds
3 eggs
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 cup cherries
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 teaspoon Cherry extract
1 smidge of cinnamon

Combine sugar, vanilla, cherry extract and eggs in appropriate sized bowl, mix. Add oats, mix again. Add Almonds, mix some more. By now it should be fairly sticky and all items should be evenly coated. A mixer may work for this, but I didn't want to clean the wife's mixer, I just used a bowl. Add the chocolate chips and fruit, last time to mix, I promise. I added the fruit last because I didn't want it to get to beat up with all the mixing.

Grease a 9x13 pan, I mean hose it down (my wife doesn't clean up after my little baking 'experiments'). Spoon your mixture of fruity oaty goodness into the pan. Slide it into your oven at 350* (you did preheat it, didn't you? On a side note, turn the oven on before you mix anything. Than it will be ready). Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. 25 was just a bit to long in my oven, just check them at 20 and go from there.

Remove from oven and let cool (I mean it, let them cool), cut into bars and wrap, freeze for a longer shelf life. Finally, clean up your mess before your better half gets home. Just trust me on the last part.

Alright, it's taste test time, the flavor is good but the consistency isn't quite right. They are a little crumbly, they just don't quite stick together like they should. I'm thinking about maybe adding molasses or maybe another 1/2 cup of brown sugar. But I'm really at a loss now, and I'm hoping that my two female readers will come in and save me. So how do I make my bars stick together without ruining the taste? HELP!!!!!