Dry Fruits Bars & Amazing Info on Fruits/Veggies !

Crisp on outside n Semi-moist inside !!!
Deeba's post here - Bar Cookie with the statement 'snack box for kids' had me get-set-go on this, the moment I read it! I prepared this beauty, going per her directions, except the crasins were missing, I went ahead with artificially sweetened cherries which worked fine with these dry fruits!

My plans to pass couple of these to few friends flopped! Why...as hubby was gobbling down in dozens and kids too went fast on it!! A keeper recipe! Thanks Deeba for going through 'The Colossal Cookie Cookbook' and sharing with all of us, they're over!!

Ingredients :
100 gms / 1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup maida/ all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/4 cup almond powder
1/2 cup pistachios chopped
1/2 cup raisins golden
1/2 cup craisins ( I used-artificially sweetened cherry)
1 tbspn powdered sugar for dusting

Method :

Preheat oven to 180 C. Line a 8 x 8 " pan with 2" depth and allow the parchment to hang out.
(A rectangular swiss roll tin works fine, the extra sheet is left so that post baking its picked out holding this and passed on to a wire rack for cooling)

Sift maida, baking powder,salt and keep aside. Beat butter and sugar till it forms a fluffy mixture.

Add eggs one by one allow to combine with the mixture. Add the vanilla essence.

Fold in very gently with spatula, the flour and last 4 ingredients - ie almond powder,pistachios, golden raisins and craisins.

Pour this sticky mixture into the prepared tin, with a flat spatula even it out. (The leveling is done to ensure unform baking and gives out neat pieces once cooled)

Bake from 20 - 25 mins till the surface is golden brown, prick a pick and check for doneness inside, it has to come out clean. ( Mine took 21 minutes @ 180 C )

Take the tin out of oven, leave for 10 minutes, then hold the lining paper, lift it out of the tin, cool on rack.

Once completely cooled :
1. Upturn it carefully and take off the parchment paper, place on a flat surface or work area.
2. Use a serrated knife and slowly -carefully cut to desired shape (square/rectangle etc )
3. Dust powdered sugar on the top of the cut bars with strainer or sieve.





Store ( in airtight cookie jars -yup one and half jar get filled up), if nobody is around...if people are around , don't bother with storage! :D






I recieved this lovely mail from a dear friend, thought of sharing it here!! Please go through it carefully...its amazingly informative!!!

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God is so creative even when it comes to food!

Just in case you did not know this… this is absolutely amazing for sure.. and makes a lot of sense when you think about it…

This starts out not sounding interesting but read past the first paragraph and you will be amazed!

You are what you eat, so eat well.

A stupendous insight of civilizations past has now been confirmed by today's investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called 'The Doctrine of Signatures' was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater.

Here is just a short list of examples of Whole Food Signatures.

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and funct ion of the eyes.





A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.




Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.






A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.



Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exac tly like the human kidneys.





Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.




Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado fro m blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).





Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcome male sterility.




Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.






Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.



Grapefruits, Oranges , and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.





Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.



'The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it's that they are so good for you, they can save your life.'

(PS : I have no proof of authenticity of the info, its a forward which was interesting hence I shared it here)
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