Homemade Fruit Bars Recipe: Great for Snacks & Lunch Boxes

My daughter adores apple cereal bars. In fact, she would live off apple cereal bars and orange juice if I let her. Fruit bars or cereal bars are found alongside muesli bars in the supermarket and they are basically an oven baked pastry tube filled with a pureed fruit. Since my daughter likes to have a fruit cereal bar in her lunchbox every day it was time to try making my own and this Oven Baked Fruit Bars Recipe was born!

I started out making an apple filling by peeling and slicing 2 granny smith apples and cooking them with a teaspoon of caster sugar in a small saucepan over a medium heat until they were soft. I added a drop of vanilla extract at the end for added flavor and then let the apple puree cool for a few minutes. Homemade apple puree is easy to make and great to cook with.

If you don’t want to make your own filling just could use a homemade fruit jam. You can pick up yummy, homemade jams at farmer’s markets and school fetes.

A word of warning about the pastry – it can be crumbly. If your pastry is too crumbly to roll out it is probably too dry so try adding a few drops of water and kneading it gently.

Oven Baked Fruit Bars

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A simple oven baked fruit bar recipe - taste just like the fruit cereal bars from the store! Great snack for kids.

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 130g butter
• 30g raw sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ cups wholemeal self raising flour
• 1 ½ cups plain flour
• Filling: Pre-prepared fruit puree (see notes below) or your choice of jam

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. Combine the sugar and butter in a large bowl or food processor.
3. Add the egg and mix well.
4. Add both flours, mix until a thick dough forms.
5. Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
6. Once the pastry is chilled, roll it out onto a floured bench top to about 3 or 4mm thick.
7. Use a knife to cut the pastry into rectangles 8cm x 10cm.
8. Place a teaspoon full of fruit filling down one long side of the pastry rectangle. Leave a little border so the pastry will stick together.
9. Carefully fold the rectangle in half to cover up the filling. Gently press down the edges of the pastry rectangle to seal in the filling.
10. Transfer the bar to a baking tray. Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling.
11. Bake the bars in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden.
12. Allow the bars to cool on a cooling rack before eating and enjoying!

Notes

• Make the apple filling by peeling and slicing 2 granny smith apples and cooking them with a teaspoon of caster sugar in a small saucepan over a medium heat until they are soft. Add a drop of vanilla extract at the end for added flavor and let the apple puree cool before adding to the pastry.
• If your pastry is too crumbly to roll out it is probably too dry so add a few drops of water and knead it gently.
• A wonderful addition to school lunch boxes.

Nutrition Information:

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 3309Total Fat: 374gProtein: 4g

For more great snack recipes for kids, check out these ideas;