Square Energy

The Man is taking advantage of the upcoming long holiday weekend to go open our little camp on the big river. He'll drive north for hours, will arrive at dusk when the mosquitoes start buzzing out looking for dinner and will have to fight his way through frogs, mice, chipmunks, snakes and otters (sometimes minks and beavers too) to reach our shores. There'll be no water yet (and, yes, that's why I am not going!), no refrigeration and, gasp!, no Internet!
So the least I can do is pack some comfort food in his bag, especially considering the fact that the nearest store is 13 miles away, that the engine on the old workboat may give up the ghost and that he might have to row himself home.
These energy bars are my way of saying "Thanks for doing this, year after year, lovey!". They'll give him something to munch on as he huffs and puffs. And, best of all (from my point of view), they'll be reasonably good for him since they contain no fats, are packed with fruit and almonds and feature some whole wheat flour.
The recipe comes from Bars & Squares by Jill Snider, a book which is choke full of mouth-watering treat ideas.
Ingredients:

• 150 g unbleached all-purpose flour
• 115 g whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 egg 
• 175 g liquid honey (the recipe calls for twice that amount but that would be too much in my opinion)
• 75 g unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 120 g finely chopped dried figs
• 120 g finely chopped dried apricots
• 1/2 cup chopped dry-roasted almonds (the recipe calls for pecans but I didn't have any) 

  Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C and prepare a greased cake pan (the recipe calls for a 13 x 8 inch but since I only had an 8 x 8, I went with that and just baked the whole thing a little longer)
2. In a bowl, combine all-purpose and whole wheat flours, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg, honey, applesauce and lemon zest until smooth. Stir into dry ingredients, mixing well. Stir in figs, apricots and almonds. Spread evenly into prepared pan
4. Bake in preheated oven until top is set and lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes (mine stayed in 30 minutes). Let cool completely in pan on rack. Cut into bars. Pack in watertight container. Smile and kiss. Send Man on his way.