These buckthorn bars have a fruity, tangy taste. It's thanks to the apples, raisin and apricots in them. Plus, of course, powdered sea buckthorn berries. Great when you need an extra hit of Vitamin C. And making them is easy – simply assemble the ingredients then blitz in a blender. Then add honey to bind the mixture.
Buckthorn bars - the finished product
Wherever possible, use organic ingredients. We also opted for rice flour and gluten-free oats, to make the bars coeliac-friendly. But you could just as easily use wheat flour and ordinary oats.
Karoline hard at work on the final stage
You can buy all sorts of gluten-free products like these oats
Ingredients
100g raisins
40g dried apple rings
60g apricots (unsulphured)
Pumpkin seeds give the bars a bit of extra goodness
20g pumpkin seeds
70g oats
40g ground almonds
Buckthorn berries gathered last October on East Lothian beaches
20g sea buckthorn powder (our tutor makes her own powder, by gathering, drying and pulverising the orange berries, but you can also buy it on-line - apparently Russian firms do a roaring trade in sea buckthorn powder)
40g brown rice powder
5 tablespoons honey
Rice paper (available from Chinese supermarkets)
Unsulphured apricots - they escape that artificial orange colour
Blitz raisins, pumpkin seeds, apricots, ground almonds, buckthorn powder, brown rice powder, oats and apples (in fact, all ingredients except the honey and rice paper) in a blender for a couple of minutes, until you have a smooth mixture.
Jill calculates quantities for the buckthorn bars
Empty contents of the blender jug into a bowl. Add honey to bind the mixture. Mix to ensure consistency. Using hands, form the mixture into bar shapes. Roll in rice paper and place on baking tray to set. And voila - a health-giving snack for all the family.