Figgin’ Awesome Date Bars
What do figs, dates and riding bikes this time in season all have in common?
They all love dry, hot and sunny places! ☀️ 🌵
The fig is often referred to as a fruit, though it's actually a group of tiny flowers growing inside an edible shell. Most of the world's figs are grown in Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Spain, and California. All nice hot, and dry places :)
Dates grow on big trees called "date palms.” They’re native to the Middle East countries and have been a part of the region’s cuisine for thousands of years. Dates have also been adopted to grow in Southern California, Southwestern Arizona, and around Las Vegas, Nevada.
Breckenridge this time of year starts to get cold and snowy. BRRRR. So when you want to bike you head out west to somewhere dry and sunny like Fruita.
I’m not sure what inspired me to create a fig recipe. Maybe it was the kid I saw eating a packaged fig Newton bar the other day that made me want to create a better homemade version. Maybe I wanted a challenge to create something with ingredients I don’t use as often like figs. Orrrr maybe it was my body preparing for winter in Breckenridge but telling me “Not quite yet, head to the desert first!”
It was probably a little bit of all the above!
Either way, I had an itch to use this unique plant to bake me some goods for my trip out west to Fruita. And out of the oven came these Figgin’ Awesome Date Bars!
Oats, spices, flour and brown rice syrup come together to create a brownie-like crust. Then dried mission figs blended together with dates, orange zest, coconut sugar and some more spices make the middle filling for these oatmeal bars.
When it comes together and you take your first bite, you get a unique and irresistible explosion of flavor that keeps you coming back for more!
Let’s get you somewhere nice, sunny and figgin’ dry, eh? :)
Ingredients
Crust
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1-2/3 cups rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
Filling
8 ounces dried black mission figs (plus hot water for soaking)
1 tsp orange zest
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch sea salt
8-10 Medjool dates, pitted
1-2 Tbsp coconut sugar (optional sweetener)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions
Make the crust/topping
In a large bowl, whisk the melted coconut oil, brown rice syrup, coconut sugar, and egg together. Add the oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Begin whisking and then stir to combine. You will have about 2 and 1/2 cups of this crust/topping mixture.
Filling
Add figs (stems removed) to a mixing bowl and cover with hot (not boiling) water. Soak for 3 minutes, then drain but reserve fig water for later (to thin filling)
Add figs to a food processor and blend, then add orange zest, ground cinnamon, salt and mix. Add reserved fig water a little at a time until it starts to form a paste, but be careful not to add too much – you want it to be thick but spreadable.
Next, add as many dates and/or coconut sugar as desired to sweeten and blend to combine. I used 8 dates and 1Tbsp coconut sugar. Taste before moving on to the next step!
Bars
Take a little over 1 and 1/2 cups of the crust/topping mixture and press it evenly into a parchment-lined or greased pan. Spread fig filling in an even layer on top. Spoon the remaining crust/topping mixture evenly on top and gently press it down into the filling to ensure it’s tight and compact on top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top has lightly browned. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack. Cool bars completely.
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