Make these yummy fig bars!

Like me, you may have discovered a forgotten bag of figs you meant to put out on the platter for NYE!These are so plump and soft and the buttery spiced crumble is a yummy contrast to the sweet, sticky filling. ⁠
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These bars make a a great little healthy snack either mid morning or mid afternoon when it’s time to put your feet up with a cuppa. Or just grab one for dessert. ⁠

Put them to good use with this easy recipe which make a perfect lunchbox friendly snack or delicious dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. You could also replace the figs with Medjool dates if you like.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Rapadura Sugar
Wholemeal Spelt Flour
Desiccated Coconut 
Ginger powder
Rolled Oats
Figs or Medjool Dates

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration take a look at my popular ebook, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved and take the guess work out of what delicious, healthy food to pack your kids for lunch!

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Fig Bars

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 55 minutes

Servings 12

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

Bottom layer

• 100 grams cup butter softened
• 1/4 cup rapadura sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 cup wholemeal spelt flour or any plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Fig Filling

• 1.5 cups chopped Turkish figs or you can use Medjool dates
• 1 cup water

Oat Topping

• 1/4 cup wholemeal spelt flour or any plain flour
• 1/4 cup rapadura sugar
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger optional but our whole family love ginger and it goes well with fig
• 3 tablespoons cold butter

Instructions

• Heat oven to 175 degrees C and line a 20 cm square pan with parchment paper.

Bottom Layer

• Beat butter, sugar, vanilla together in a bowl until pale and creamy (2-3 minutes). Add egg and beat until just combined.
• Sift in flour and baking powder and stir until just combined.
• Press mixture into the pan and bake for 10 minutes until just set and remove from oven to slightly cool.

Fig Filling

• While bottom layer is in the oven, put figs and water into a small saucepan and bring to boil. Uncover and stir intermittently until figs are tender and water is absorbed, around 5-8 minutes. Mash with a fork or blend in small processor to create a fig paste.
• Spread paste over slightly cooled bottom layer.

Oat Topping

• In a small bowl mix flour, sugar, oats, coconut and ginger. Add butter and rub dry mixture into butter with your fingertips until well combined and it looks similar to a crumble topping.
• Spread over fig layer and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until top is golden brown.
• Cool completely (around 1hr) and then cut into bars.
• Topping may be a bit crumbly but will continue to set.

If you make this recipe and share on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek.

Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. She’ll get a total kick out of seeing you bring her recipe to life.

Some other delicious healthy treats you might like are Orange and Poppy Seed Bars and Muesli Slice. 

I’m not sure if it’s because of my Middle Eastern background (figs are said to have originated there) but while I’m not generally a lover of fruit, I simply adore figs and can’t get enough.

So in that short window during late summer when they come into season, I make the most of them!

Here are 5 of my favourite ways to eat them:

1. Fresh and as is.
2. For brunch with some prosciutto, goats or ricotta cheese, a drizzle of EVOO and a good crack of black pepper.
3. In a rocket salad with some blue cheese and walnuts and balsamic olive oil dressing.
4. For breakfast chopped into some yoghurt with some cinnamon, buckinis and a handful of nuts and seeds.
5. My new recipe for Honeyed Fig Cheesecake Slice. The beauty of this recipe is that once fig season is over you can replace figs with any of your favourite fruits. My personal favourites are fresh berries, chopped or sliced mango, or passionfruit.

If you’re looking for more recipe inspiration, take a look at my new recipe ebook which is getting rave reviews, Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes.

It’s packed with 40 delicious nut-free, refined sugar free sweet and savoury recipes which have all been kid-tested and approved!

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Spelt flour
Rapadura sugar
Sea salt
Vanilla powder
Raw Honey
Cinnamon

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Honeyed Fig Cheesecake Slice

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

Sweet Short Crust Pastry

• 1 cup spelt flour
• 100 grams butter chilled and chopped
• 1 tablespoon rapadura sugar
• pinch sea salt
• 1/4 cup ice water 40 grams

Cheesecake Filling

• 125 grams cream cheese
• 125 grams marsrcapone cheese
• or you can just use just 250 grams either marscapone or cream cheese
• 1/4 cup rapadura sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice optional
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest optional
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fig Topping

• Around 5 medium figs halved
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Cinnamon

Instructions

Directions Sweet Short Crust Pastry

• Pop the spelt flour, butter, sugar and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Keep running the food processor and pour the ice water through the feed tube until the mixture and keep processing until a ball of dough forms.
• Pop the dough into a bowl and refrigerate for around half an hour .
• When ready to cook, preheat oven to 175 C and grease and line a 19cm x 19cm square tin with baking paper.
• Flour your kitchen surface and roll out the dough to fit the tin.

Directions Cheesecake Filling

• Whisk together the cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, rapadura sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract.
• Scoop the cheesecake batter on top of the pastry then cook in oven for 30-40 minutes or until cheese is set and dough is lightly golden. Allow to cool.

Directions Fig Topping

• You have two options here. You can slice up some fresh figs and arrange on top of the cheesecake slice and drizzle with honey. Or, halve the figs, place in a baking tin, sprinkle over some cinnamon, drizzle over the honey and grill for a couple of minutes. Once cool arrange on top of the slice.
• Put slice in fridge to further set.

Notes

Replace fig toppings with your favourite fruit. Fresh berries or mango make a perfect topping.

If you make this recipe please do take photos and send them to me.

If you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek. Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life. 

And remember, if you haven’t already, grab your copy of Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes here.

Other similar recipes you might like are Raspberry Swirl Slice and Apple Crumble Slice.

Bren x

So in usual Brenda style I set out to make the healthier version while the kids doubted I’d be able to match the tastiness (without all the sugar).

Lo and behold!

The kids went cray cray over my version, popped them in their lunch boxes each day, and have already asked me to make them again, and again …

These bars are so good that I just had to put this recipe into my Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes ebook  which is packed with 40 delicious nut-free, sweet and savoury wholefood recipes your kids will love! Grab you copy here.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Rapadura or coconut sugar
Spelt flour
Baking powder
Honey or rice malt syrup

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Orange Poppy Seed Bars

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 165 grams butter softened
• 1/2 cup rapadura or coconut sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups spelt flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds soaked in 4 tablespoons orange juice
• ICING
• 150 grams cream cheese
• 1-2 tablespoon honey or rice malt syrup
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 2 teaspoons orange zest

Instructions

• Grease and line a slice pan with baking paper
• Preheat oven to 175 degrees
• Pop butter and sugar into a bowl and beat with an electric mixture until pale and creamy (1-2 minutes)
• Add one egg in at a time, beat well
• Add in the poppy seed/orange mixture and stir
• Add flour and baking powder and fold in
• Pour into the slice pan
• Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean
• Cool in the tin for 10 minutes
• Carefully turn onto a cooling rack
• Ice once completely cool
• ICING - simply pop all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth
• Using a butter knife spread icing onto cooled cake
• Slice into bars
• I stored them in the fridge

If you know someone who could use some lunch box inspo, please share this recipe with them!

And please take photos and send them to me, or if you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek

Remember to check out Easy Wholefood Lunchbox ebook here.

You might also like these Oat Seed and Date Bars or this Muesli Slice. Both also make great lunch box fillers.

Bren x

In this recipe I manage to skip the step of stewing the apples by simply slicing the apple thinly enough so they cook through in the oven. And adding the berries means you need less apples to peel and slice.

This dish makes another lovely well-balanced #thinkoutsidethecerealbox breakfast or dessert option, providing good carbs from the apples, berries (not to mention all the antioxidants) plus oats, good fats from the cream and butter and protein from the almonds. And it’s perfect fare to eat in the depths of winter in front of the heater with your favourite ugg boots on. Nom nom.

I make some of the topping nut free by either leaving them out or replacing them with sunflower seeds, so I can pack some of this deliciousness into lunchboxes.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Ground cinnamon
Nutmeg
Spelt flour
Rapadura or coconut sugar
Oats
Desiccated coconut
Vanilla powder

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Apple and Berry Crumble (Cheat's Version)

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 3 medium green apples peeled, cored and thinly sliced or chopped
• 1 cup mixed frozen or fresh berries
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• A pinch of nutmeg
• Cream to serve
• Crumble
• 1 cup spelt flour
• ¼ cup rapadura or coconut sugar
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• ½ teaspoon vanilla bean powder or vanilla extract
• 150 grams butter melted

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees fan forced
• Combine the apples, berries, spices, lemon juice in a bowl and pop into an ovenproof dish with 1/3 cup of water.
• To make the crumble, place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine.
• Spread the crumble mixture over the fruit, then pop into the oven and bake for 30 - 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
• Serve with a big dollop (or two!) of thick, fresh cream and a sprinkling of chopped macadamia nuts.

Notes

This is also delicious served cold.
Make extra crumble topping, pop on a baking tray and bake until golden brown. The topping is handy to throw on top of fresh fruit, served with yoghurt for a quick breakfast, snack or lunchbox idea. Just store in the fridge or freezer.

Enjoy!

Bren x

Real Food for Hungry Teens

Created by certified health coach, Brenda Janschek, and her hungry food son Orlando, this eBook contains a rich variety of over 20 nourishing, real food recipes designed to satisfy the tastebuds and growth requirements of developing teenagers.