Madhouse recipe : Golden Syrup Fruit & Nut (or Christmas Pudding) Breakfast Bars

Lyle's Golden Syrup recently sent me through a lovely package of goodies, including their Maple Flavoured and Breakfast squeezy golden syrups, to take part in a "5 Minute Breakfast Challenge" and  try out some of their new breakfast recipes that have been developed with celeb chef Jo Pratt.

Here are the tempting recipes that they sent in the pack - Breakfast Power Smoothie, Sweet Chilli Tomatoes, Sticky Sausage Sarnie, Banana, Pecan & Cinnamon French Toast and Fruit & Nut Breakfast Bars. Where to begin ?!

I decided to go for the breakfast bars but adapted them to use up the festive leftovers, including a mini Christmas pudding that was still lurking in the cupboard.

Lyle's Golden Syrup Fruit & Nut (or Christmas Pudding)  Breakfast Bars

ingredients :

150g Lyle's Golden Syrup

75g butter 

grated zest of 1 orange

150g prunes, roughly chopped

150g pitted dates, roughly chopped

(or 1 individual Christmas pudding instead of the prunes and dates)

150g porridge oats

1/2tsp cinnamon

100g mixed seeds

75g dried cranberries

50g flaked almonds

50g brazil nuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°.

Put the golden syrup, butter (I used coconut oil), orange zest, prunes and dates in a saucepan and gently heat until the butter has melted. I actually used up a small individual Christmas pudding instead of the prunes and dates. 

Cook for 5 minutes and mash everything together.

Transfer to a bowl and mix in the oats, cinnamon, cranberries, almonds and seeds.

Press into a greased dish (I reused the foil tray from a brioche that was polished off yesterday) and bake for 20 minutes until lightly golden.

Cool in the tin then remove to cool completely and cut into slices.

They have a lovely gooey, chewy, crunchy texture but taste of Christmas pudding ! Perfect for breakfast on the go or for taking to work as a mid-morning or afternoon snack.

Linking up to #KitchenClearout because this is a great recipe for using up all those half packs of nuts, seeds and dried fruit cluttering up the baking cupboard. It also used up a mini Christmas pudding that was taking up space and reminded me that I have a glut of porridge oats to work my way through.