How can I fix these Oat Bars

15 years ago

I used the recipe from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. I made a few changes to try to get them a little healthier for my toddler. I tried a bite and they don't seem very sweet to me and they stayed pretty crumbly. Do you think changing to real butter caused it to not bind as well? What can I add to make it sweeter and still somewhat healthy--honey, brown sugar?

Deceptively Delicious Blueberry Oatmeal Bars (With Spinach)

SERVES 12

nonstick cooking spray

2 cups old fashioned oats

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I added 3/4 c Whole Wheat Flour and reduced the all-purpose flour to 1/2 c)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup balance trans-fat free margarine, chilled (I used real butter)

1 cup no-sugar-added blueberry spread (I could only find no sugar added raspberry spread)

1/2 cup spinach, puree (I used 1/4 to see if he would eat it first)

Preheat oven to 375.

Coat an 8"X 8" baking pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and vanilla and stir to mix well.

Add the margarine and cut it quickly into dry ingredients with two knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal and is no longer powdery. Do no overmix--bits of margarine will still be visible.

Set aside about half the oat mixture; press the rest firmly into the pan. Bake until lightly browned at the edges (but not fully baked), 13 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the preserves with the spinach puree in a small bowl.

Spread blueberry mixture over the partially baked oat layer, then sprinkle with reserved oat mixture. Bake until topping is slightly browned, 20-25 minutes. Set the pan on a rack to cool completely before cutting into 12 bars.

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Comments (6)

ruthanna_gw
15 years ago
Did your child like the batch you made? If so, why would you want to make them sweeter?
lindac
15 years ago
too much whole wheat flour....I would use i cup AP flour and 1/4 cup wheat germ ( keep it in the refrigerator, it goes bad quickly) and you also eliminated 1/4 cup of moisture in the spinach...add 1/4 cup applesauce to make up for it.
But I really question what kind of nutrition he will get in that 1/4 cup of pureed spinach in those bars.
To boost nutrition I added things like finely grated carrots, dry milk and soy flour.
he spinach came mixed with a bit of sour cream, cottage cheese and garlic powder in a dip for potato chips!
Linda C
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Tracey_OH
15 years ago
I'm thinking that if you used 3/4 c of butter, that was WAY too much. Margarine is whipped full of air and contains water so the proportion of subbing butter for the margarine would be different. Also, if you did use that much butter in a recipe that only makes an 8x8 pan, it's going to have way too much saturated fat to be considered healthy. What is your goal? To find healthy treats for you little one? How about a whole grain muffin made with canola oil? Or cereal bars made with whole grains and dried fruit?

Tracey
deniseandspike
Original Author
15 years ago
He sampled them last night but didn't seem overly enthusiastic about them.

I do have some wheat germ I can try next time. Cutting down on the spinach shouldn't have affected the dryness of the topping because it is spread on as a middle layer--not mixed into the oat mixture.

I'm trying to get him a serving of veggies at lunch. The school won't heat up their lunches so the only cold veggie he eats right now is tomatoes. I don't want to burn him out on tomatoes by giving him those every day so I'm trying to cook some veggies into food so he will eat them without having to get them heated up. I was going to slowly increase the amount of spinach I put in these after he gets used to the taste. I've got a recipe for butternut squash quesadillas and some breakfast cookies that have a white bean paste in them.

I'm ok with him eating real butter--I'm not trying to limit his calories. I guess I need to research more on converting from margarine to butter when baking. He has a real sweet tooth so I know he would like these better if they were sweeter but I don't like refined sugar--that's why I was wondering if there was something I could change out or add that would be better than the white sugar that I'm already putting in there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Butter
lindac
15 years ago
You can mix lots of stuff into a "dip" and sesaon it with ranch dressing mix.....and with some chips kids will love it.
spinach is one thing....as well as pureed green beans and carrots.
Linda C
caliloo
15 years ago
1/4 cup (or even 1/2 cup) spinach over 12 servings in the recipe seems hardly worth it to me. It isn't like that is a "serving" of spinach.

That said, I think you should make the recipe as written, then decide where oyu can make modifications that work (like a small amount of WW flour for the AP, I think your ratio was too high). I also don't know about the butter=margarine substitution.......

I also think Tracey is right, you may want to make some dried fruit and grain bars or something like that as an alternative to the tomatoes and try introducing the other veggies at home. One that my kids still like (tho it makes me shudder) is cold canned green beans. I don't know why, but they will both still eat them! You might offer those at some point...

Alexa

How can I fix these Oat Bars

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ruthanna_gw

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How can I fix these Oat Bars

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