As everyone here on the Eastern Seaboard of the US gets ready to hunker down for the latest dose of “Snowmageddon,” with the Weather Channel telling us we can all expect snow in epic and historic proportions: 3 ft for Washington DC and up to 2 ft for us here in NY, my thoughts turned to things to do when you are snowed in with the kids

My daughter loves to help bake things and is ‘blessed’ with a sweet tooth.  So, I decided that we would try out an old but gold recipe for a delicious melt in your mouth, fruity and moist cookie bar to go with the gallons of tea, coffee and hot cocoa we will likely consume, as the white stuff descends this weekend

The main ingredients

Ingredients

• 1 x 14 oz tin of canned apricot halves drained (tip: although I used apricots, peaches, or even apples or pears will do – just raid your pantry and see what you can find!)
• Grated rind of a small lemon
• 6 oz softened unsalted butter (take it out the fridge for a while before you start)
• 6 oz soft brown sugar
• 8 oz sifted plain flour
• 4 oz rolled oats (Scottish or Irish porridge oats)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
• 1/2 tsp salt

The crumb mixture

Method

• Mix the butter with the sugar using a food processor, or by hand (if you already need warming up), add the flour, oats, soda and salt and mix again until the mixture forms into tacky crumbs
• Meanwhile take around 1/2 oz extra butter and melt in a 12″ x 8″ baking tin, making sure all sides are coated
• Chop the fruit, into 1/4 inch pieces and mix with the lemon rind
  

  Fruit and lemon rind mix

• Coat the base of the baking tin with around half of the crumb mixture in an even layer. Add all the fruit on top in another layer, then coat with the remainder of the crumb mixture
• Bake in a preheated oven at 350 f for around 30 minutes,then leave to cool in the tin
• When cooled, cut into bars of around 3 x 1 .5 inches
  

  The first two layers of the fruit bars

These moreish fruit bars are wonderful treat, with a hot drink of your own choosing, when you need to replace the energy you’ll likely be exerting digging yourself out of the snow when the blizzard has passed!