CRANBERRY WALNUT POWER BARS
Source: Food and Wine Magazine, Feb. 2007, recipe by Heidi Swanson/revised jg
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups walnut halves
1 ½ cups puffed brown rice cereal
1 ¼ cups rolled oats
1 cup dried cranberries
½ cup oat bran
3 T finely chopped crystallized ginger
1 cup maple syrup
¼ cup natural can sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract.
Procedure:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 8 x 11 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Spread the walnuts on a half sheet pan and toast until fragrant and golden, about 9 minutes. Let cool, then coarsely chop. Transfer the walnuts to a large bowl. Add the puffed rice, rolled oats, cranberries, oat bran and ginger and toss well.
In a small saucepan, combine the maple syrup, cane sugar and and salt and bring to a boil over moderate heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour the syrup into the rice-oat mixture and toss to coat thoroughly. Transfer the warm mixture to a baking dish and pack lightly with a spatula that has been coated with cooking spray. Let cool for at least 45 minutes before cutting into 16 bars.
