These vegan fig bars are like the classic fig cookies–a sweet filling sandwiched between layers of flaky crust–with one big difference: they are fat-free.
I hope you enjoy this “rerun” of a recipe I associate closely with Christmas. It’s my low-fat, veganized interpretation of the fig-filled cookies my husband’s grandmother always made for Christmas. D looked forward to those cookies every year, and once he married a vegan, his grandmother often made a special egg-free batch just for us. Sadly, she’s no longer with us, but I think of her whenever I make these fig bars.
I made an impulse buy the other day, one of those “rings” of dried figs. I’ve been missing fresh figs all summer, so when I saw these dried figs in the store, I bought them without thinking. But then they sat on my kitchen counter taunting me with memories of my yummy, but definitely not low-fat, Holiday Fig Bars. Since I’ve been trying to cut down on sugar and refined foods lately, making a batch of those bars would not be in my best interest.
But visions of fig bars persisted, as such cravings will when you have the primary ingredient sitting right on your kitchen counter. I finally broke down this afternoon, just in time for my afternoon pot of coffee (another substance I should probably give up but won’t), and made vegan fig bars.
Actually, I decided to make vegan fig bars healthy. I revamped my recipe so that the oil is gone, the refined flour is history, and the sugar is . . . well, the sugar is reduced. It’s gotta have something in it besides figs, you know!
You will be amazed at how good these are. They’re low in everything, except flavor.
Skinny Figgy Bars
Ingredients
Filling:
- 8 ounces dried figs (one round package)
- 4 ounces pitted dates
- 2 tablespoon slivered or chopped almonds optional
- 2 drops anise extract optional
- 1 tablespoon agave nectar or other liquid sweetener
- 2 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ginger
Crust:
- 2 cups regular or quick oats use certified gluten-free oats if necessary
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces unsweetened apple sauce
- 3 tablespoon agave nectar or other liquid sweetener
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Make the filling: Snip off the figs’ stems, and put the figs, dates, and almonds into the food processor. Grind to a coarse paste. Stir in the remaining filling ingredients and process until mixed. Set aside.
- For the crust, grind one cup of the oats in blender until powdered. Combine the oats (ground and unground), baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Stir in the apple sauce, agave nectar, and water, mixing well to a thick consistency. Press half the crust mixture into the bottom of an oiled, eight-inch square cake pan (use a wooden spoon or your hands). Spread the fig mixture evenly over the crust. Smooth the remaining crust mixture over the filling. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.
- Icing (optional): Mix powdered sugar (about 3 tbsp.) with a little water (Start with 1/2 tsp.) until the right consistency. Add vanilla or almond extract to taste (just drops). Drizzle over top of bars before cutting.
Nutritional info is approximate.
Be sure to check out all my favorite holiday desserts.
Happy Holidays to you all!
AmyLu
December 22, 2010 at 8:32 amThanks for a great recipe, Susan!
I substituted quinoa flakes for the oatmeal and date sugar for the agave nectar; left out the salt; and left off the frosting. They were very nice eaten warm out of the oven. I poured soymilk over one in a bowl and ate with a spoon and that was good, too. I just realized I misunderstood the quantity of oats, so I only used 1 cup of quinoa flakes instead of 2. The crust still turned out great.
I really like everyone’s ideas for other fruit fillings, too. I look forward to trying some other variations!
Deanna
January 3, 2011 at 12:42 pmThese look so good! Thank you for posting! I just found your website and I think it is great 🙂
Gwen~healthymamma
January 9, 2011 at 2:18 pmExcelletnt, just what I was looking for!!! Making these right now!
Pasha
January 10, 2011 at 3:20 pmHi Susan, I’ve made this several times and love it! The crust came to the rescue this Christmas for low fat vegan mince-pies. I don’t know if these are popular in the US but in the UK they are essential Christmas fare (and I do love them!). I used a ready made low fat ‘mincemeat’ and chilled your oat crust so that it could be cut and crimped in mini pie tins. Delicious…. Thanks!!
thehealthyapron
January 14, 2011 at 2:41 pmThese look great!! I cannot wait to try them!
thehealthyapron
January 18, 2011 at 6:57 amHi Susan! I made these bars just yesterday and thought they were fantastic! I used your picture on my web site though simply because the photo I took from my Iphone wouldn’t upload and I didn’t have any other options! I will be giving you full credit for the photo/recipe etc but I hope this is okay! I know you have your web addy right on the pics so I’m assuming you wouldn’t mind. If you do though, let me know!! Thanks so much!
Suzanne
July 24, 2011 at 3:02 pmHi Susan – I just took mine out of the oven and followed your recipe to a t, but was concerned when the crust seemed too moist so didn’t use all the wet ingredients. Is this the was the crust is supposed to be, opposed to the traditional dry crumbly mixture seen for most recipes like this? I thought 4 ounces of applesauce plus the other wet ingredients were a bit much so left about a couple TBS out. I also used a 9″ square pan, which i think is just a wee bit too big. consequently the crust didn’t quite cover the top. but, what the heck, i’m sure it will be delicious. thanks for the recipe.
p.s. – my neighbor keeps giving me fresh figs from her tree. so i dried them and hence – your skinny bars!
Jennyb
August 20, 2011 at 9:28 amI finally plucked up the courage to make these, as we are (uh oh, might be…. its not definite now due to weather) going to a BBQ this afternoon. Just taken them out the oven, am a little worried that the crust looks a little dry on top at the moment, as i just realised i used 4oz of fresh apple to make my apple sauce rather than 4 oz of apple sauce. I called my step dad from the supermarket & he read out “apple juice”, i got home a saw it was sauce not juice. Grrr. Not that we seem to get unsweetened apple sauce in English supermarkets anyway. But this has shown me how easy it is to make my own too! Anyway they are cooling but will update this comment once i have tried one. Hopefully only one, the thought of all of them sitting in the house stresses me out. (Eating Disorder hasn’t quite left me alone yet.) I hope it stops raining & we go to the BBQ so i can share them!
Jesylee
September 20, 2011 at 6:20 pmAll of these recipes look so amazing! For some reason when I saw this one I had a vision of kiwifruit in place of figs (this is probably because I have a few kiwis getting desperately ripe). So I tried it. I also changed a few other things; since the kiwis were fresh I used no additional wet ingredients, I added wheat germ and almond meal to the whole thing, I also used pureed raisin-water in place of a sweetener for the crust…. so how’d it turn out?? Well, the kiwi is definately ripe which gives it a distinct flavor (not a sugary sweet), and the rest of it is not very sweet at all; but this balances well. I do think next time I will the crust more crust like because it came out almost like a struedel. Overall, amazing experience, fun recipe, and I’ve already had more than one! Thanks Susan!
Tondaleya
September 21, 2011 at 2:11 pmCan I use fresh figs instead of dried? If so are their any adjustments I should make in the recipe?
Joanne
November 25, 2011 at 1:07 pmWow I made these today and they are gorgeous, so easy to make and taste delicious!
The only problem I had was my dates wouldn’nt chop up in the food processor very well, I used dried ones, did I do the wrong thing? Should I have soaked them before or used fresh ones?
Susan Voisin
November 25, 2011 at 1:34 pmSome are harder than others–sounds like you got the hard ones. Soaking them would be a good idea if you make them again.
Veggie V! @Veggie V's Vegan Adventure
December 3, 2011 at 8:36 pmI made these, exactly as suggested (minus the glaze drizzle), and they were delicious! I don’t have a glass pan with anything close to the suggested dimensions, so I made mine in a deep dish pie plate. Fig Better-Than-Newton’s Pie! At first I thought 16 pieces was going to be way too small, but that little sliver isn’t so little – and it’s just the right amount. I took some of the extra pieces to work, and everyone loved them. I rarely make desserts twice (because there are some many delicious new ones to try), but I’ll be making these again for sure! I’m already planning on when 😉 This was my first time working with figs, fresh or dried, and I found them very similar to dates, which I’m very familiar with. So yea me! And yea for Skinny Fig Bars!
MELYNDA
December 7, 2011 at 12:28 pmCan you use Bob’s Oat flour in place of ground oats. Or is it too fine?
Susan Voisin
December 7, 2011 at 12:42 pmThat should work just fine.
Skye
December 7, 2011 at 10:27 pmThose look really yummy!
Deb Jump
February 10, 2012 at 7:20 pmI tried the Skinny Fig Bars today and have a couple questions. The dough seemed kind of wet and gummy before baking. Should it be that way? I weighed the 4 oz. of applesauce on a scale but got to thinking that maybe you meant 1/4 cup instead of exact weight. After baking and cooling, the top crust seemed kind of hard, dry and uninteresting. Maybe it needs the little touch of icing to compensate for that. Have you ever tried cutting a little cold almond or cashew butter into the oat mixture to give it more of a pastry-like texture? (and then adding enough moist ingredients just to crumble it.) Just a thought. I was just a little disappointed in the recipe but maybe it was something I didn’t do quite right…
AVBear
February 29, 2012 at 12:44 pmI just made these today and they turned out delicious! I didn’t have an 8×8 pan, so I just baked them in a fluted round tart pan. And I made the mistake of putting 2 Tbsp lemon juice in the filling, but that worked out just fine. I also added a bit of vanilla powder to the crust. All in all a very successful recipe. Both my husband and 1.5 year old loved it. (as did my guest for afternoon coffee) Thank you! 🙂
AVBear
February 29, 2012 at 3:39 pmbtw. I also doubled the cinnamon and ginger in the filling after tasting it according to the recipe. It was really yummy, both with and without the icing. 🙂
meg
June 25, 2012 at 9:35 amThese were so yummy!! especially warm.
Sarah Christine Bolton
July 12, 2012 at 5:39 pmI just put a batch of these in the oven! So excited… our neighbors always give us big bags of figs every summer, and I never know what to do with them.
I only had one question/issue. How do you effectively spread the top layer of crust on top of the figs? My crust turned out too dry to spread without totally destroying the figs… should it be more of a watery consistency?
So glad I found this site… I am a long-time partial vegetarian, recent vegan, and your recipes look amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Susan Voisin
July 12, 2012 at 5:49 pmI plop the top crust on in clumps and then spread them out to cover. If yours wouldn’t do that, maybe it did need a little more liquid. The dryness of ingredients can vary, so maybe mine were a little more moist than yours.
Sarah Christine Bolton
July 12, 2012 at 5:54 pmThat’s kind of what I ended up doing. I’ll try making it a bit more moist next time.
Thanks again!
diana carr
August 13, 2012 at 1:35 pmi wish i was your neighbor. you are amazing. thank you, diana