BOSH! Bars — a plant-based British recipe by BOSH!
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BOSH! Bars

These are the bars we make on a Sunday and then spend the whole week feeling smug about. Packed with toasted oats, nuts, seeds, coconut and chewy dried fruit with a hit of fresh orange, they're the kind of snack that genuinely makes you feel good about what you're eating. The texture is just right too, a little crunchy, a little chewy, and totally satisfying. We've been making these for years and honestly they never last more than two days in our house. If you need one reason to get into the kitchen today, this is it.

Cook: 45 min
Serves 6

Before You Start

  • Preheat oven to 180°C
  • 2x20cm baking trays
  • 2 mixing bowls
  • Potato masher
  • 23cm cake tin greased & lined with baking paper
  • Spatula
  • Cooling rack

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp desiccated coconut
  • 2 tbsp ground flaxseed
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 4 tbsp almond butter
  • 150g oats
  • 50g mixed nuts - including almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews
  • 50g mixed seeds
  • 100g mixed dried fruit - including currants, sultanas, dried cherries, apricots
  • 100g pitted Medjool dates
  • 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 bananas
  • salt

Method

1

Toasting the oats

  • Spread the oats, nuts, coconut and seeds across 2 baking trays, keeping them roughly separated.
  • Put the trays in the oven and toast for 5-7 minutes.
2

Make the mixture

  • Roughly chop the dried fruit and dates and add them to a bowl
  • Zest and juice the orange into the bowl and allow the fruit to soak for 5 minutes
  • Set the toasted dry ingredients aside to cool
  • Roughly chop the nuts. Add all the toasted ingredients to the bowl with the ground flax, cinnamon, salt and fold together to combine
  • Peel the bananas, pour them into a mixing bowl and mash into a smooth paste
  • Stir the vanilla and almond butter into the banana to combine
  • Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir to combine
  • Pour the mixture into the cake tin, spread it out with spatula making sure the mixture is smooth on top
  • Put the tin in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until the mixture is beginning to turn golden in colour
3

Finish and serve

  • Take the tin out of the oven, place it on a cooling rack and allow to cool completely
  • Remove the bake from the tin, cut into bars and serve or transfer to a Tupperware

Tips & Variations

  • Toast properly: Don't rush the toasting step. Keep an eye on the oven and pull the trays out the moment things turn golden. It can go from perfect to burnt pretty quickly and trust us, the difference is huge.
  • Mix up the dried fruit: We love dates and whatever dried fruit we have knocking around. Apricots, raisins, cranberries, sour cherries all work brilliantly here so just use what you've got.
  • Press firmly into the tray: When you're shaping the mixture, really pack it down hard. The more compressed it is before it sets, the cleaner and neater your bars will be when you cut them.

Why This Works

Toasting the oats, nuts, coconut and seeds first is the move that makes everything taste about ten times better. It brings out this deep, nutty warmth that you just don't get if you skip that step. Soaking the dried fruit and dates in fresh orange juice and zest is the other secret weapon because it plumps everything up and gives the bars this lovely citrusy fragrance that runs all the way through.