Baked Fruit & Nuts energy Squares

This is a simple recipe yet powerful in terms of taste & nutrients. These squares have all the goodness of nuts, dry fruits, coconut, jaggery & jowar, ragi, &wheat.
A piece of it satisfies your sweet craving and supplies energy very quick.  Yes it works well! You can add the fruits & nuts of your choice.
I had some dry dates & apricots staying in my freezer for quite some time! No one at home was interested in it and I wanted to use them. The idea came of baking with them, but felt they will not go good in any cake/ cookies. Then came the thought of the squares or bars just to attract the choosy kids around. Its taste resembled that of Karadantu (sweet of Gokak). 

energybars

Here we go with the recipe.
Preparation & baking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 250 gms
Ingredients:
Dry fruits (dates, apricots, raisins) – ¼ - ½ cup, you can use the fruits of your choice
Nuts (cashews, almonds, peanuts) – ½ cup all together
White sesame – 2 tbsp
Roasted channa dal/ Putani – ¼ cup
Jaggery powder – ¼ - ½ cup, adjust according to taste
Dry coconut/ Ona kobbari – ½ cup (powder)
Ghee – 1-2 tbsp
Finger millet flour/ Ragi hittu, Jowar flour, Wheat flour – 1 tbsp each (or you can use only wheat & ragi flour)
Corn flour - 1 tbsp
Salt – a pinch
Method:
  • Wash dry fruits and soak them for half an hour. Do not soak raisins, but wash and keep aside.
  • Slice the dry coconut into thin pieces and powder it fine in a dry mixer jar. Transfer to a wide mixing bowl.
  • Dry roast peanuts separately and remove skin as much as possible. It is fine even if skin is added.
  • Add all nuts & roasted peanuts in the dry mixer jar and powder them coarsely by pulsing couple of times. Add this powder to the bowl with coconut powder.
  • Now in the same jar, take the soaked dry fruits and grind into coarse powder.
  • Mix the shredded dry fruits, raisins, sesame with the powdered nuts.
  • Add jaggery powder, salt, flours one by one and mix well into sticky dough. Add ghee while doing so.
  • You can add 1-2 tbsp milk if it looks very dry.
  • Once the mix is ready, spread it on a greased baking tray. Press with fingers to get smooth surface.
  • Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
  • When done, allow to cool and cut into desired shape. Store in a air tight container and refrigerate if storing for more than 2 days.
Notes:
  • You can add (or remove) dry fruits or nuts of your choice like pistachios, fig, walnuts…
  • Remaining ellu bella mix (sesame-jaggery) after Sankranti festival can be used. I added that too.
  • This squares are not very crunchy instead becomes bit chewy.

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