Apricot Oat Bars

My Aunt first made these a couple of months ago after watching the food network (one of my favorite channels ;) ). Giada De Laurentiis was making these for her friends as a gift for running in a marathon. As an athlete, I love these because I know exactly what is in them, because I made them. Unlike the other granola bars out there, I know exactly what I am putting into my body. Of course we used the original recipe the first time with the massive amounts of horrible stuff in it for you, but I switched it around a bit and made some of my own substitutions.

What is great about these is you can interchange what type of preserves or dried fruit you use. We have tried apricot, mango, and triple berry. All three were really good. You can also interchange the type of nut being used, just in case you don't like walnuts. Interchanging ingredients may change the calorie count, but not by a significant amount.

Ingredients
Serving Size: (1 Bar), Yields 24 Bars
Calories: 140

Vegetable oil cooking spray

Filling
1 (13-ounce) jar apricot jam or preserves (about 1 1/4 cups), use no sugar added
8 dried apricots, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces (about 1/3 cup)

Crust
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, I do a mix of half of whole wheat and half white flour
1 packed cup light brown sugar, I use splenda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup (4 ounces) coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup (2 sticks) I can't believe its not butter, melted
1/4 cup egg beaters
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 by 13 by 2-inch metal baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray. Line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with vegetable oil cooking spray and set aside.

Filling: In a small bowl, mix together the jam and the apricots. Set aside.

Crust: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Stir in the oats and walnuts. Add the butter, egg and vanilla and stir until incorporated. The batter should be a little thick. If its not, add a little bit more oats to get a thicker batter (we had trouble with this, the bars end up not sticking together in the end.)

Using a fork or clean fingers, lightly press half of the crust mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Using a spatula, spread the filling over the crust leaving a 1/2-inch border around the edge of the pan. Cover the filling with the remaining crust mixture and gently press to flatten. Bake until light golden, about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool for 1 hour. Cut into bars and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or store in the freezer.