Big Sur High Power Bars

An adaptation of Heidi Swanson's Big Sur Power Bars from her cookbook, 101 Cookbooks, this is easily changed around to suit your tastes! I love Big Sur so had to post this! These bars are soft set, prone to falling apart and are fairly sticky and gooey too. All adds to their deliciousness. :)

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Yields: 16-24 bars

Ingredients

• 1  tablespoon  sunflower oil (or other healthy oil)
• 1 1⁄4 cups rolled oats
• 3⁄4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped (or nut of your choice)
• 1⁄2 cup  sliced almonds, toasted (or nut of your choice)
• 2⁄3 cup  shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1⁄2 cup  oat bran
• 1  tablespoon ground flax seeds (or or and nutritional yeast flakes)
• 1 1⁄2 cups  crisped brown  crispy rice cereal (not the puffed rice-or use rice crispies)
• 1  cup  chopped dried cranberries (or dried fruit of your choice)
• 3  tablespoons  finely chopped crystallized ginger
• 1⁄3 cup sesame seeds
• 1  cup  brown rice syrup (or use agave syrup, or maple syrup or try honey, using a little less)
• 1⁄4 cup  unrefined  unbleached cane sugar (turbinado sugar, or brown sugar)
• 1  teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1⁄2 teaspoon  fine grain sea salt

Directions

1. Grease a 9" x 13" baking pan with the oil. If you like thicker bars, use a 8x8 inch baking pan.
2. On a rimmed baking sheet toast the oats, nuts, and coconut for about 7-9 minutes, or until coconut is golden brown. Stir twice during the baking to make sure everything bakes evenly.
3. Place the baking sheet ingredients into a large mixing bowl and add the oat bran, cranberries, ginger ground flax seeds, and brown rice cereal.
4. Using a small skillet, heat the sesame seeds over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Stir constantly so the seeds do not burn — remove from heat when they become golden in color.
5. In a small saucepan stir together the remaining ingredients over a medium heat until they start to bubble and boil and thicken slightly(syrup, sugar, vanilla and salt).
6. Pour the hot liquid in with the dry ingredients and mix until they are fully coated in the syrup.
7. With buttered hands, pat the mixture into place in the pan.Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and press again. Cool to room temperature before slicing. It may be easier to tip them out of the pan first, before cutting.
8. Wrap individually in parchment paper (or waxed paper).