Baked Treats For Tu B'Shevat. Yumm.

In case you haven't noticed I've been way to busy crafting to even consider baking, but a few of my friends sent over some recipes for Tu B'Shevat that I wanted to share with you.

Mostly Healthy Fruit and Nut Cake
(photo on right, courtesy of my friend Tali over at matzosoup.com)

Tali likes this cake for reasons that all make perfect sense to me too! (can't wait to try this myself)

• delicious
• very quick to make
• lasts for a relatively long time (not that it would…in my house anyways)
• perfect with tea and/or espresso
• I consider it to be a healthy cake, I hope you'll agree with me on that one

Ingredients:
3/4 cup whole almonds
3/4 cup half walnuts
3/4 cup whole hazelnuts
1 cup black raisins
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dates
optional: few pieces of dried ginger (will make it a little spicy)

10 tablespoons of whole wheat flour
8 tablespoons of brown sugar
3 eggs
2 spoons of squeezed lemon
2 spoons of almond extract or amaretto liquer

Note: when I was making the cake, I wasn't very precise about the dried fruit and nuts quantities. I did it according to what I had at home. and I also didn’t add any almond extract but used some vanilla extract instead.

How To:

• slice apricots, dates and ginger
• mix together with nuts and raisins
• add flour+sugar, stir using your hands
• add eggs, lemon juice and almond extract
• mix well until you can’t see any flour on the fruits and nuts
• pour into a pan (elongated rectangle pans are best for this cake)
• pack down the mixture into the pan

Bake for approximately 45 minutes at 320 ˚F  If the raisins start to burn a little, cover with aluminum foil
Let cool down before slicing. When you serve the cake, slice it really thin.

Delicious Date Bars
(courtesy of my friends over at gourmetkoshercooking.com )

Ingredients

Makes 16
1 ½ cups water
1 ½ cups chopped pitted dates
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted margarine diced, room temperature

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 8×8-inch metal baking pan. Bring 1 ½ cups water to simmer in medium saucepan. Add dates; simmer until very soft and thick, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Stir in vanilla.

Combine flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in large bowl; stir to blend. Add margarine. Using fingertips, rub in until moist clumps form. Press half of oat mixture evenly over bottom of prepared pan. Spread date mixture over. Sprinkle with remaining oat mixture; press gently to adhere. Bake until brown at edge and golden brown and set in center, about 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan on rack. Cut into bars and serve.