Expat Bars

Tangy Apricot Nut bars on a Piecrust. If you have any talent with crust these are sublime. Saudi style ingredients w/ Ozark kitchen teqniques (my family were expatriots in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for decades). This is my original recipe.

• Ready In: 1 hr 10 mins
• Serves: 10
• Yields: 10 large bars

Ingredients

• 1  recipe for a double  pie crust
• 1 1⁄2 cups corn syrup
• 3  beaten eggs
• 3  tablespoons butter
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1⁄4 teaspoon clove
• 1⁄4 teaspoon allspice
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1⁄2 cups  minced dried apricots, with 1/4 c hot water poured over them to plump
• 1 1⁄2 cups  chopped walnuts
•  dates, about a handful, chopped, are (optional)

Directions

1. Chop your walnuts & mince apricots. I use scissors to snip the apricots to bits as they’re very sticky. Pour boiling water on apricots and toss to coat so the water can soak inches
2. Roll the piecrust out in one oblong piece to fit an 8 ½” x 13 ½” pan (rolling to the width of a sheet of standard waxed paper works perfectly) and place the crust in the pan.
3. In a medium saucepan, bring the corn syrup to a boil, whisk in the eggs (pouring a very thin stream). Turn off heat and stir in the butter, salt, spices vanilla, walnuts and apricots.
4. Pour mixture into the piecrust and fold the crust edges over to make a border. Bake @ 350 degrees for about 45 minute You will see that the filling is slightly puffed up when the bars are done, like a pecan pie.
5. This makes a thin bar that is not too sweet using Ozark kitchen techniques w/ some Saudi ingredients.
6. I thought this also might be damn good made w/ dried pineapple & pecans w/ a dab of molasses, instead of the apricots & walnuts. Hawaiian bars, ha ha : ).