Apricot Oat Bites

This is neither a cookie nor a muffin, but somewhere in-between. A similar type oat bar was sold at the counter of my favorite coffeehouse, and this is my version of that type of treat. I have made them much, much smaller, so that I can pack them in my small children's lunch boxes. The original bars that I remember were round disks, about 5 cm diameter, and about 2-3 cm thick, kind of like a hockey puck. If you want to make that serving size, adjust the baking time accordingly (perhaps increase again by half?)

• Ready In: 30 mins
• Serves: 36

Ingredients

• 3 1⁄2 cups rolled oats
• 2  cups flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄3 cup plain yogurt
• 1⁄3 cup brown sugar
• 1⁄3 cup honey
• 1⁄4 cup milk
• 1  egg
• 1  cup  dried apricot

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grind the oats in a food processor or blender a little -- they do not have to be as fine as flour, but not chunky, either.
3. Mix the oats with the flour and the baking powder.
4. Put the dried apricots in the food processor next and chop to small bits (about the size of a dried currant.).
5. In a separate bowl, mix together the yogurt, sugar, honey, milk, and egg.
6. Add the fruit to the wet ingredients and mix.
7. Combine wet and dry ingredients.
8. This will be a very dry dough and it stays crumbly throughout. Mix as well as you can until the liquids are evenly dispersed.
9. Spoon into mini-muffin tins and press down to compress. Add more until each well is slightly mounded on top, while being completely compressed.
10. Bake 10 minutes.
11. Cool about 10 minutes in tins before removing to finish cooling on a rack.
12. These freeze well, and the small size can go into a lunch box frozen and be completely thawed by noon!