Hello Foodies and Hivers!
Today, I am sharing what I baked some days ago called Plum-Strawberry-Fig Bars. It's the season for plums nowadays and many supermarkets have them on their palette of fruits and berries. Some of them are locally produced by farmers and some of the early birds available at supermarkets mostly come from warmer regions in Europe like in Italy and Spain.
I was out for some errands last week and when I passed by a discount supermarket, I saw that the figs were there too, but gosh(!) the price tag had almost been 1 Euro for a piece. At any rate, I got 1 pack of plums, plus I also got just 1 fig to simply garnish what the bars. And so plums, strawberries and fig were the perfect ingredients for the bars I was to bake. I thought of getting locally harvested strawberries although their time is almost over now. They were sweet compared to those imported ones and were quite expensive because of the labor cost here.
Prepping the PLUMS before baking…
Wash the plums, halve each and remove the seed. Put them in a casserole, add about 3 tablespoons of water and add sugar or in my case, I added 2 tablespoons of stevia powder to coat the pieces. Bring to a boil, cover then simmer for about 15 minutes or until the plums are soft. Then drain in a colander to remove excess liquid. Set aside for later use.
Meanwhile, below is the recipe , the ingredients as well as how to prepare it. Be sure to get ready with the ingredients to make baking faster before you start the baking process.
Notes:
Good for 9 bars, depending on the size you want to cut or serve
Preheat the oven at 180°C
Prepare 2 bowls
Plum-Strawberry-Fig Bars
Ingredients:
3 cups Plums (prepared before baking, see above Preppy)
1 cup strawberries , sliced
1 fig, sliced thinly into about 4 parts
½ cup dried cranberries
250 g all-purpose flour
1/2 pack baking powder (about 8 grams)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 pack vanilla sugar
150 grams sugar or 6 tablespoons Stevia powder (if you are avoiding sugar)
4 eggs, separated
100 ml water
100 ml olive oil or vegetable cooking oil
½ juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
thinly sliced almonds (optional)
Confectioners sugar
Preparations:
1... In the 1st baking bowl, combine egg yolk, sugar, vanila sugar, lemon juice and the grated lemon rind. Fold in the flour and sifted baking powder, alternately add the water and oil. Or you can also combine the water and the oil together and pour this into the flour mixture slowly, combining with a wooden spoon to make a soft batter.
2...Place the egg whites in the 2nd bowl... beat the egg whites either with a wisk or blender to make peaks. By using a spatula, add the beaten egg whites to the first bowl. Mix thoroughly to combine, then line a baking tray with baking parchment and pour the batter and distribute it to the whole parts of the tray.
3... Garnish the batter with the cooked plums, the sliced figs, strawberries, cranberries, walnuts and the thinly sliced almonds.
4... Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 30 minutes. During the end of the baking time, cover the tray with an aluminum foil to prevent the top from getting dark. Check on the batter, when a toothpick inserted comes out clean, then baking is done! Sprinkle with a confecioners sugar or Stevia Powder , let cool down completely, then slice into bars depending on the size of the servings you like.
Can go with your favorite coffee or hot tea. It can also be served cold with other drinks.
E N J O Y !
All images are owned by the author, 
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