Cherry Oatmeal After School Bars from Fruits from Chile

Ingredients:

• 1 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cups rolled oats
• ½ cup sucanat or dark brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
• Fresh Cherry Jam
• 3 cups Chilean Cherries, pitted
• 2 tablespoons raw honey
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Directions:

1.  In a small food processor, pulse cherries, honey, chia seeds, and lemon juice and zest. Pulse until cherries are finely chopped. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350º. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, oats, sucanat, baking powder, and salt until evenly incorporated.
3. Stir in melted butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. Press a little more than half of the mixture into an 8×8 inch baking pan that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray or lined carefully with parchment paper.
4. Spread fresh cherry jam over the top of the bars (reserve any juice to be drizzled over ice cream!). Sprinkle remaining oat mixture on top of the jam layer, pressing down to cover, but leaving some spots that the bright and pretty cherries can be seen.
5. Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove and let completely cool. Slice into bars or squares.  Bars also freeze beautifully for a future easy snack on the go!

Serves: 10