My two weeks at Denmark have come to an end and I am back in the comfort of my own bed and the convenience of my own kitchen. What I really miss most though was my washing machine with all its bells and whistles. I am much more calm and collect when I have a huge supply of clean laundry! The minute I came home, I started a big load of laundry, showered, and then made myself a lentil salad. You can tell I have my priorities.
I have plenty of travel stories to tell including a very memorable meal I enjoyed at Noma. During my last 24 hours in Denmark, I threw caution to the wind and ate way too much. How much is too much? Two thirds of a Neapolitan-style pizza topped with Norwegian salmon and shrimps, sorbet of Danish strawberries and dark chocolate, Danish-style hotdog with all the fixings, hot chocolate with whipped cream, strawberry tart from Cafe Norden, and half a dozen Danish pastry as TB and I meandered our way from Hillerod to Copenhagen airport with stops along the way. I clearly won the pastry showdown with TB. People are often surprise at my appetite for sweets. Just because I refuse to over-indulge in my normal daily life doesn’t mean my stomach room is incapable of handling it!
I can’t say I am much affected by jetlag. Since I hopped on the plane, I’ve been dozing off in 3 hours increments with about an hour of awake time in between. That continued until 5am this morning. It’s not jetlag. My sleep pattern is just messed up. However, once I was finally awake for good, I itched to bake. My house was neatly devoid of almost all perishables so my options were limited. I am even out of butter! Fortunately, my trusty Fruit & Nut Bar does not require much and I changed it up enough to reflect my current preference for whole grain baking. The result is a wholesome yet mouth-watering Fig & Almond Buckwheat Oat Bar. With its abundance of Calimyrna figs, whole almonds, oats, whole wheat flour, buckwheat flour, wheat germ, sesame seeds, and maple syrup, this bar is packed with fibre and nutrients. This is the perfect snack to tie my over until I get around to stock up my kitchen in the next couple of days.
Fig & Almond Buckwheat Oat Squares
makes 16 servings
Ingredients
- 150g old-fashion rolled oats
- 75g whole wheat flour
- 60g buckwheat flour
- 25g toasted wheat germ
- 20g sesame seeds
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 150g light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white
- 75g grapeseed oil
- 100g maple syrup (I used #1 light for a more neutral flavour)
- 1 tsp rose extract (alternatively, you can use 2 tsp of orange blossom water or rose water)
- 227g Calimyrna figs, chopped
- 113g unblanched whole almonds, roughly chopped
Method
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9x13 cake pan with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients including oats, both flours, wheat germ, sesame seeds, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together all the wet ingredients including brown sugar, egg, egg white, oil, maple syrup, and rose extract. Ensure there’s no more clumps of brown sugar.
- Gently stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until mixture is homogenous. Fold in figs and nuts.
- Tip mixture into prepared baking pan and smooth the top. Bake for 40 minutes until top is golden and toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Cool completely before slicing into pieces. Store in air-tight container separated by wax paper for up to 3 days.
