THE RETURN OF THE COCO-OATY BARS

Many months ago I made these delicious oaty bars as an alternative to my Fab And Fabulous Flapjacks. I decided to revisit them this weekend as, after all my tray bake tales recently I was feeling a bit caked out. Last time I made them with strawberry jam however, this time round I had a jar of lime and mint curd from Scarlett and Mustard and it complimented the coconut mixed in with the butter, flour, oats, sugar so well that I had to revamp the recipe and share it with you all. These bad boys have gone up another level and you are going to love them!

Scarlett and Mustard, if you haven't heard of them then you really should head over to their website and check them out. They make a range of delicious curds such as the lime and mint variety I've used for these oaty bars as well a selection of dressings and oils which I've had the pleasure of trying over the years. They are top notch products and you should defiantly hunt some out if you can. If you can't get hold of this lime and mint curd you can use another variety of lime curd. It really does work well with the coconut in the oats. If you cant find a nice lime curd or you don't like it, well the great thing about this recipe is that you can use any flavor jam you like. I've used strawberry before and it was delicious.

Other than that there isn't really much to talk about as there are only a few more ingredients. If you don't want to add the coconut in with the oats just make sure you add an extra 50g of oats to replace the weight lost by not adding the coconut. Recipe below will make around 15-20 crumbly oaty bars and they are so easy to make that you'll be whipping them up all the time!

Lime And Mint "Coco-oaty" Bars

175g Slightly Softened Butter
175g Plain Flour
150g Oats
50g Desiccated Coconut
125g Light Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Baking Powder
Pinch Of Salt

340g Lime And Mint Curd

1. Get your oven straight on to 180 degrees (160 fan) and line a deep sided 25cm square baking tray with grease proof paper.
2. Add the butter and flour into a bowl and rub the butter into the flour until as much butter as possible is rubbed into the flour, much like you would if you were making shortcrust pastry. 
3. When you have rubbed in as much butter as possible and possible run a knife though the mix to chop up any big clumps of butter into smaller pieces. You will end up with a bowl of buttery crumbs and some larger pieces. This is allgood
4. Throw in the rest of the ingredients apart from the curd into the bowl and mix until everything is well combined. Once fully mixed, run a knife through the mixture again to cut up any butter that may of clumped together back into smaller pieces just like before.
5. Take half the mixture and spoon evenly into the baking tray and pat down to from a compact layer along the base of the tray.
6. Take the curd and spoon it into a small bowl and give it a good mix with a spoon. This will help loosen the curd up to make it more spreadable. Take the loosened curd and carefully spread it along the top of the oaty layer in the tray.
7. Sprinkle over the rest of the oats and spread them out evenly over the top so that all the jam is covered. Place in the oven and bake for around 35 minutes until the top is golden brown. 

Once baked, remove from the oven and then whatever you do, do not take the square out of the tray until it's completely cool otherwise it will fall to bits. You need to be patient and wait for the square to firm up before cutting it but trust me it's so worth the wait. Cut into rectangular bars or square pieces and dig in. The coconutty oats will be so buttery, crumbly and delicious whilst the lime and mint filling will cut through the oats and start dancing around your taste buds. They really are a delicious treat, either with a cup of tea at lunch or for grabbing on the go at breakfast. They're totally tropical and oatalicious baby!