Incaberry oat breakfast bars

A week or so ago, I was delighted to see incaberries turn up on Orgasmic Chef and Hotly Spiced, blogs written by the charismatic Maureen (Orgasmic Chef) and Charlie (Hotly Spiced). I tried incaberries last year after seeing them at a local independent supermarket, and loved their tart-sweet taste.

Maureen and Charlie received their incaberries from Australian distributors of the product. After I left a comment on Maureen's post saying how much I'd enjoyed incaberries last year, and how much I'd love to play with them in baking, she kindly alerted the incaberry company to my comment. They, in turn, kindly sent me a sample of my own so I could experiment away.

This chain of events almost leads me to christen incaberries as berries of kindness. Thank you, all.

Whatever name you give them, these berries are full of flavour and they pack a nutritional punch to boot. I won't recite their purported health benefits, but you can read details on the incaberry website if you're interested. I will say that they taste very good.

Last year I didn't get further than eating my incaberries plain. This year, I thought I should try a little harder, and set about making something that could serve as a grab-and-go breakfast. These oat slices are the result.

Without the incaberries, these slices wouldn't be very exciting. They taste mildly of oats, a little of vanilla and cinnamon, and somewhat of apple. A bit like a bowl of oats in bar form. The incaberries shake things up, studding the predictable oat-vanilla-apple hues with tart bursts of flavour. There really is something to be said for contrasting flavours, and that something is good.

I'm now finding that these are breakfast bars, but also 3pm bars, and 11am bars, and sometimes even post-lunch bars. And you know what? I think that's the sign of a good bar.

I hope you enjoy them too.

Incaberry oat breakfast bars

These bars are good for breakfast, or for any time.

Extensively adapted from the oatmeal earth bars in Kris Holechek's The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes.

Makes approximately 10 bars.

Vegan.

Print recipe

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pinch salt

1 cup apple sauce

1/2 cup milk of choice (I used soy)

1/4 cup agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp almond butter

1/2 cup incaberries

Method

Preheat your oven to 160'C (320'F) and line a square baking tray with baking paper.

Combine the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Stir to combine.

Add the apple sauce, milk, agave, vanilla and almond butter and mix well. Stir in the incaberries.

Transfer to the prepared baking tin and bake for 40 minutes or until golden and an inserted knife comes out clean.

If you want other ideas for incaberry use, there are plenty of recipes on the incaberry site, or you could try Maureen's incaberry and date bars or Charlie's three course incaberry meal (spatchcocks with incaberry and macadamia seasoning, gluten-free incaberry brownies, and dark chocolate incaberry clusters!).

Have you tried incaberries? Any other favourite ways to use them?

I received my incaberries free from the incaberry company, but was not compensated for this post and the recipe and opinions are my own.

Submitted to Healthy Vegan Friday #40.

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