Alex Rotherham of the Bay Tree Café in Bury St Edmunds was inspired to create this oat bar recipe by memories of cooking with his mum when he was a child

One of my earliest memories of cooking was baking desserts with my mom. When I was very little my parents had bought my sister a Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. My sister never used it, but I absolutely loved it. My very own oven to bake cake in. It just used an incandescent bulb to very slowly cook small amounts of cake batter, but I was amazed and astounded by it.

As I got a little older, and it was clear that I at least had an interest in making sweet foods, my mom started to get me to help her make some. The Nanaimo Bar, a truly Canadian sweet treat is a great example, one of our signature items at the café, and maybe I will share my recipe another time. Another we would make quite often would be an Oat Bar. I suppose it is pretty much like what is called a flapjack here (in Canada a flapjack refers to a type of pancake).

I’ve decided to share a recipe that I have developed based on my memory of those days. While my mom did keep an old family recipe card collection, sadly it was lost some time ago. So, now as an adult, I have to try to recreate these recipes from memory. . . and me being me, adding in some of my own embellishments.

This is a great snack to take on hikes or put in packed lunches. I am normally not a fan of raisins, but puréed and worked into the bar like this works. They give a nuance to the flavour and texture. The vitamin C also helps with the texture, helping to lend a chewiness to the bar, but it also give an almost orange, citrus hint to them.

OAT BARS
Ingredients:

Base:
8oz raisins
2oz Maple syrup
250g salted butter, cubed
1oz coconut milk powder
8oz demerara sugar
½ tablespoon vitamin C
½ teaspoon sea salt
3 eggs
Egg white from two extra eggs
12oz oats
4oz almonds

Topping:
8oz 70% dark chocolate
3oz butter

Method:

1. Start with blending the raisins in a food processor. Slowly add in the maple syrup - I recommend using a dark maple syrup for deeper flavour. You will need to stop and scrape down the bowl of the food processor to get the raisins fully blended.

2. Combine butter and demerara sugar, and heat over a double boiler, constantly whisking until you have a smooth creamy texture. Then whisk in the sea salt, vitamin C and the coconut milk powder.

3. Add the puréed raisins to the butter mixture and mix together well.

4. Blend the oats and almonds in the food processor until they form a fine powder.

5. Whisk in the whole eggs, plus extra egg white, into the butter mixture. The extra egg yolks can be used in other dishes, but we want a higher white ratio to provide greater structure to our oat bars.

6. Combine the almonds and oats with the butter mixture and mix until fully incorporated.

7. Press completely flat into a parchment lined tray bake, and bake in a preheated fan assist oven at 150°C for 45 minutes.

8. Put the dark chocolate and butter in a mixing bowl and melt over a double boiler. I use Callebaut 70% dark, merely because that has been my go to chocolate for over 30 years. It’s delicious and I can’t fault it. Make sure to mix well once melted and spread evenly over the bar and allow to fully cool. You can wrap and cool it in fridge to speed things up.

9. Once fully cooled, slice into pieces and enjoy.

Alex Rotherham is co-owner and head chef of the Bay Tree Café, in St John’s Street, Bury St Edmunds

Tel: 01284 700607

Facebook: baytreecafebury