Bird Seed Squares Recipes

BIRD SEED ENERGY BARS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x14 inch ovenproof baking dish.
• Mix the rolled oats, brown sugar, wheat germ, cinnamon, and flour together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, honey, canola oil, vanilla, and salt until evenly blended., and stir into the oat mixture. Stir in the flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and chocolate chips. Use your hands to mix the ingredients, and press the mixture into the prepared pan.
• Bake in preheated oven until the edges are golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool completely in the baking dish before cutting into 2 inch bars.

SEED BARS

Steps:

• preheat oven to 325F (300 F if electric oven)
• Mix the seeds and salt together in a medium bowl. Stir in vanilla and warm honey, until uniformly combined.
• Place a piece of parchment in an 8 x 8 baking pan ( all the way up the sides too) . Spray lightly with oil.
• Pour seed mix into lightly greased, parchment-lined pan and using a wet metal spatula, spread it out, into corners and edges and press down firmly until you have a compacted, smooth surface at a uniform depth.
• Place on the middle rack in the oven for 40-55 minutes. Check at 25 minutes adjusting heat down to 300F, if edges seem too brown. For a chewy consistency, take out at 40-45 minutes, for a crispier crunchy consistency, let it cook the full 50 -55 minutes. Keep in mind, all ovens are different, so heat may vary. The key is....You want to take them out when they are perfectly golden, before they get too dark. So keep a close eye on them after 40 minutes. If you take them out too early (before they are golden) they may be too chewy and sticky. Pay attention to the color.
• For example, I've cooked these in two different ovens. In the gas oven, 50-55 minutes delivered perfectly golden bars. In the electric oven, 40 minutes were enough for perfectly golden. 55 minutes would have totally burnt them.
• Remove from oven, and cool completely. You could place in the fridge to cool faster. When it's completely cooled, take the parchment out of the pan, turn it over and remove parchment. Flip back over and cut into desired shapes or bars. Store at room temp.

BIRDSEED BAR

Steps:

• Heat the first four ingredients, one after another in a large frying pan, until toasted and lightly browned.
• Mix with sultanas in a large bowl.
• Heat butter, honey and brown sugar to the soft ball stage, then pour over mixture in bowl.
• Mix well.
• Press into pan so it is 2cm thick.
• When nearly cold, cut into bars.
• Store in airtight container.
• Cheers Doreen Doreen Randal, Wanganui.
• New Zealand.