Apricot Cherry Bars
"This recipe comes from the 10-12 Dec 2004 issue of the USA Weekend newspaper. It's a great tasting fruit bar, but you do need to watch out for any stray cherry pit."
photo by DianaEatingRichly
- Ready In:
- 35mins
- Ingredients:
- 10
- Serves:
-
50
ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 3⁄4 cup light brown sugar
- 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
- 2 cups sliced almonds
- 2 cups dried cherries (about 10 oz)
- 2 cups dried apricots, coarsely chopped (about 16 oz)
- 21 ounces sweetened condensed milk
directions
- Move a rack to a lower-middle position in the oven & preheat to 325 degrees F.
- Spray a 13"x9" glass baking dish with vegetable cooking spray, & set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix the flour, oats, brown sugar & salt.
- Stir in the butter with a fork until well mixed & clumps have formed.
- Spread 1 1/2 packed cups of this mixture over the bottom of the baking dish, pressing to form a thin crust.
- Mix the coconut, almonds, cherries, apricots & milk in a large bowl, blending well.
- Pour this filling over the crust, distributing evenly & pressing it down.
- Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture over the dried fruit filling.
- Bake about 30 minutes, until lightly golden, then cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
- Can be stored, covered, at room temperature up to 2 days.
- When ready to serve, cut into 1 1/2" squares.
Questions & Replies
-
Could I use shredded coconut instead of flaked?
Reviews
-
Wow, are these ever delicious!! I made these tonight for a bake sale tomorrow, and snuck a little taste, and I think I'll have to make these again next week for my usual Wednesday night group - I wouldn't want them to miss out! Wonderful, Syd, thank you so much for sharing the recipe! Made for PRMR Tag. -
I'm giving this one five stars for flavor. I think I would bake these longer than 1/2 hour, which may be due to my oven, but either way, they weren't quite done when I took them out. Very rich tasting and all the fruit and nut flavors are so very yummy. I could only find one 5 oz package of dried cherries so I subbed in 5 oz of cherry flavored craisins. Thanks!!
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Absolutely wonderful bars! We LOVED it! My local shop didn't have sweetened condensed milk so I made my own. The flaked coconut we get here are not sweetened so the bars didn't turn out overly sweet, just the way we like it. I used whole almonds roughly chopped, couldn't get hold of dried cherries so had to use glazed cherries. I gave 1/2 batch to one of DH's classes and they all loved it too! Thank you, Sydney Mike, for sharing this wonderful recipe, I definitely will be making it again!
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Wow! These bars are great - very sweet - but oh so good!! A little piece goes a long way!! Only change I made was to use dried cranberries - would be good also with raisins or any kind of nuts. Thanks SM!!
