A good bar cookie can sometimes run circles around a regular old cookie, especially if you’re like me and enjoy thick, soft cookie middles. A pan of bar cookies can be looked upon as a pan of cookie middles for the most part. The edges, of course, get that crisp edge of a regular cookie, but the middle ones… oh, those middle ones. Dangerous.

These bars are gooey and crumbly and hard to stop eating. They’d stand up well to a strong cup of coffee. Cut large and cradling a large scoop of vanilla ice cream — you’d make your date putty in your hands. Crumbled small and thrown over big bowls of vanilla ice cream with hot fudge or caramel — your kids might just offer to rake the golden leaves. Fall is letting itself be known. Time to turn the oven on again.

Chocolate-Fig Oatmeal Bars
Adapted from Martha Stewart

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped dried figs*
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an eight-inch square baking pan. Line bottom with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides; butter paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugars, egg, salt, and orange zest until smooth. Add flour, oats, chocolate chips and figs; fold in just until combined.
Spread batter in prepared pan, and bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Using paper overhang, lift cake onto a work surface; cut into ~16 bars (or fewer for bigger bars). Can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for three days.

*If there is time, soak your figs first in hot water to soften. Drain well. I find that softened dried fruit has a much better texture in baked goods.

It starts with good quality steel cut oats, a fresh banana, real maple syrup, and a little time to tend to the stirring. I have been making a variations of this breakfast treat since discovering the recipe in Australian chef Bill Granger’s Bill’s Sydney Food cookbook, of Bill’s restaurant fame. As an aside, Sydney is one of my favorite gastronomical cities in the world, and Bill Granger’s cookbooks are the most used and loved on my plentiful cookbook shelf.

The surprise of adding thinly sliced bananas is they will literally melt into the oats and add a natural sweetness without adding a fruity texture. This mornings treat was simpler than Bill’s more elaborate version in an effort to not consume my sugar allotment for the day, but for brunch guests, or indulgent days, this can be made even better with the addition of warm buttered apples on top.

Banana Maple Oatmeal for Two

2 cups water

1/2 cup steel cut oats

pinch of salt

1 thinly sliced banana

1 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 cup of cream warmed

brown sugar to top

In a small pot bring water and salt to a boil. Gently add steel cut oats to boiling water, stirring to keep them from sticking to the bottom. Reduce heat to medium and simmer to thicken for 10 minutes. Stir in banana slices and cook to desired thickness stirring regularily, for another 10-15 minutes. Stir in maple syrup and serve with warm cream and brown sugar.

To add the yummy buttered apples, thinly slice apples and fry them in unsalted butter with a sprinkle of caster sugar, and turn when they are soft and golden.

Now go and enjoy the chilly morning with a hot cup of tea and a blanket, because you know what Michael Jackson says:  “A blanket’s a gift.”