Energy bars take 4

After careful analysis and much thought while eating some Cliff Bars we brought with us from our last visit to the US, I had an inspiration for improving my attempts at energy bars, which were to this point acceptable, but not really appealing. The idea is to start from a panforte recipe and use sugar/honey that's been taken to the firm ball stage.

I started from the ratios I used last time I made panforte, but changed the mixture fairly dramatically, used the higher sugar temperature from my first panforte, and did a quarter recipe since we'd have to eat the experiment no matter how it turned out.

Quantities:

• 100g dried fruit (apricots and prunes), chopped fine
• 150g nuts (slivered almonds, chopped pecans)
• 80g whole-grain flakes (oats, millet, spelt, etc.)
• 15g flax seeds
• 15g sesame seeds
• 85g sugar
• 115g honey
• 30g butter
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp cocoa
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• good pinch salt
• good grind black pepper

Mix the dry ingredients (except sugar) together well. Combine the sugar, honey, and butter and cook to the firm-ball stage (118C). Combine the sugar mixture with the dry ingredients, spread on parchment, and bake at 160C for about 15 minutes.

First tasting results are quite positive. We'll give it a bit more to see it holds up. :-)