Busy Baker’s Fruit and Oat Bars

You can make this.

I’m on vacation for the new year today, so I have the time to type up some thoughts, but if you are having a busy day, please skip to the recipe below.

Sometimes you are daunted by life but feel compelled to bake something. It is also nice to find a recipe that you can experiment with the flavors and know that it will pretty much turn out okay, much like the famed VBC “Orange Cake” or Jacques Pepin’s Tibetan flat bread.

This past summer I was visiting a museum in my dad’s hometown and picked up a free recipe entitled “Busy Woman’s Fruit Bars.” [Side note: I recommend visiting the museum if you are ever nearby to learn lots of interesting facts about the science of grape farming!] Being a person that often feels busy, but loves to bake, I was intrigued. It also seemed like a recipe that would be easy to make with younger children, like my daughter who is now six and likes to bake sometimes, because of the relatively few ingredients, steps, and dishes involved to prepare the mixture.

I suppose what the title is suggesting is that sometimes as a women you are required? compelled? to bake something homemade but just don’t have the time because you are busy for any number of reasons. I’m reminded of the scene in I Don’t Know How She Does It where a character purchases a pie in a convenience store for her daughter’s bake sale after a busy day at work, but then goes home and smashes it up a little because she promised she would make something “homemade.” To accomplish the task of making baking less daunting for a busy person, the recipe relies on a store-bought cake mix and a jar of jam or preserves. However, I have updated the title of this recipe to reflect my personal belief that any person might have the desire to bake and also to cut corners when doing so.

Due to the short list of ingredients, this recipe also invites experimentation. You could vary the type of cake mix (gluten free, chocolate or spice cake, perhaps?) and type of jam. You could make you own jam when you have the time. You could also be too busy to go to the store to buy a cake mix, but have the basic ingredients on hand, and mix your own (see Resourceful Person’s Variation below). This makes the recipe slightly more complicated, but fits with the theme of being too busy to do something, so it works!

Ingredients

One box of cake mix (there are may secretly vegan varieties)

3/4 cup melted margarine (like Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks)

2 1/2 cup quick oats

12 oz. jam

1 T. water

Method
1. Oil a 9 x 13 pan or line with parchment. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. Mix the oats and the cake mix.

3. Melt margarine by preferred method and stir into the oat mixture.

4. Put 3 cups of the mixture into the prepared pan and press down firmly.

5. Mix jam with water and spread over mixture in pan

6. Top with remaining oat mixture. Press down if you’d like a less crumbly bar.

7. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

8. Cool, slice, and enjoy or scoop out the warm mixture and top with vegan whip or ice cream!

Notes

• When you spread the jam over the oat mixture, it will mix together some, but don’t worry about it too much.
• Some jars of jam or preserves are more than 12 oz. but that’s fine too! Just put in the whole jar so you don’t have to measure. Try strawberry, morello cherry, or Welch’s grape preserves.
• Consider adding spices to the cake mix if it is a plain yellow or white kind.
• If, like me, you are concerned about the artificial taste of some cake mixes, try a gluten-free mix like King Arthur or Simple Mills. You might want to mix up a flax egg or two and add to the oat mixture as a binder.
• In the photo above, I added some chocolate chips to the mixture for a chocolate variation.

Resourceful Person’s Variation

Not having one on hand, I looked up how to make my own cake mix, even if you don’t have cake flour on hand. The recipe I found suggested I would also want to mill my own flour or cure my own vanilla, but who has time for these things! Here’s a quick cake mix substitute:

1 1/4 cups plus 1 T. or 110 grams wheat flour

4 T. cornstarch

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Method

1. Sift the flour and cornstarch together twice
2. Mix in the remaining ingredients.

Note: If you’d like to use cake flour, use two cups in place of the wheat flour and sift one time only.