Heading To The Bar

So, you know my quest for the perfect transportable breakfast food? Well, we're getting closer! 

These breakfast bars score high marks in the categories of Deliciousness, Healthfulness, Easiness to Transport, and Easiness to Make and Store. The flexibility is terrific, as you can make these with nearly any combination of fruit, plus they are bright and cheery and they smell like summer just landed with a beautiful THUD in your kitchen. I am very excited to try these with peaches and plums and cherries in the real summer, if it ever comes. The bars have sugar, but not too much, and you could honestly get away with less if you needed to. You could use these bars as a breakfast, of course, but they could absolutely be a dessert as well. They are so good with coffee or milk! I also imagine the flour could be replaced with another type of flour, such as oat flour or whatever it is that non-flour eaters are into these days. The next time I make these, there will definitely be nuts, and perhaps flax seed for some extra protein punch -- the recipe is very forgiving in that way. What's not to like, here, you say? Well. The only flaw is a very small one, in fact, and that is that they are incredibly messy, shaggy, and crumbly. Not a bar to eat in the car, not a bar to give to a child as they toddle around town, and not a bar to give to a plate-less grown-up who wants to eat a bar on the couch while watching the Colbert Report. So to that, I say to myself, get forks and tables and plates for everyone and get over it! Bars forever!

• Strawberry-Oatmeal Bars
• recipe derived from Family Fun magazine and also seen on some other blog with blurry pictures and confusing words
• 
  
• FOR THE CRUST AND TOPPING:
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
• 2 1/2 cups oats
• 2 tablespoons water
• 
  
• FILLING:
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 tablespoons flour
• Pinch of salt
• 3 1/2 cups fresh fruit (I used strawberries and raspberries, but nearly any berry or stone fruit will do)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1. Heat the oven to 375º. Grease a pan (whatever you have -- 9x9, 13x9, 8x10). I prefer Pyrex or ceramic, but I suppose you could use a metal pan if you were in a pinch.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Make the topping/crust: add the flour, brown sugar, and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse once or twice to combine, then add the butter and pulse five or six more times until coarse crumbs form. Add the oats and pulse two or three more times.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Remove 1 1/2 cups of the mixture and set it aside. Add the water to the remaining mixture and pulse three or four times until it's just moistened. Press this mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom of the pan using your fingers or the bottom of a measuring cup.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. For the filling, whisk together the sugar, flour, and salt in a bowl. Add the fruit and lemon juice and gently toss the mixture using a rubber spatula until the fruit is coated. Distribute the filling over the crust.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture over the filling. Bake until the top is golden, about 35 to 40 minutes. Let the pan cool on a wire rack for about 2 hours, then cut the sheet into bars. Store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container. They also freeze well -- wrap in wax paper and then in aluminum foil.