This Salted Honey Cranberry Pumpkin Seed Bars recipe only has seven ingredients. They are quick to prepare but still elegant and gratifying. (Recipe Credit: Aube Giroux of Kitchen Vignettes)
Zest of one whole organic lemon or orange (about 2 tsp)
1/4 tsp sea salt
For the Topping:
1/3 cup dried cranberries (preferably the organic and apple juice sweetened kind)
3/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbsp coconut oil (refined, not extra-virgin)
1/4 tsp sea salt
Directions
To begin, preheat your oven to 350F. Place your jar of coconut oil in a bowl of hot water so that it liquifies completely. Be sure to use refined coconut oil which has a neutral taste. In a large bowl mix the spelt, salt, liquified coconut oil, honey, and citrus zest. Mix together well until a soft uniform dough is obtained. Press this dough into the bottom an 8-inch square baking pan that has been lined with parchment paper for easy removal. Try to evenly cover the bottom of the pan.
To make the filling, simply mix all the ingredients together very well (making sure you use liquified coconut oil here as well so it integrates easily). Pour this sticky mixture on top of the shortbread base and carefully spread it out evenly. Don’t worry if the honey isn’t completely evenly distributed, you can fix this during baking.
Place the pan in the oven on a rack in the upper third portion. Check about 15 minutes in and tip the pan slowly from side to side to swirl the melted honey around gently if necessary to make sure the seeds are evenly coated. At 25 minutes, check again to make sure nothing is burning. Your bars should be ready around the 30 minute mark, when the seeds look ever so slightly toasted and the edges are a bit golden. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for about 20 minutes. Remove from the pan by pulling the sides of the parchment paper and allow the bars to finish cooling completely before slicing. Slice using a large sharp knife, using quick decisive strokes to cut into clean bars.
The bars will store for several weeks in a cookie tin kept in a cool place.
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