This book makes me cook – March – Panther bars

The book for last month was Can You Keep a Secret? By Sophie Kinsella.

It’s a light frothy book where Emma Corrigan, in a brief moment (all right a few moments) of insanity, spills out all her secrets to the person sitting next to her on the flight. He, in a hindi-movie-like-twist turns out to be her new employer.

What follows is  funny encounter of how both dance around each other’s secrets and life happens. This book always makes me laugh.

I was a little foxed as to what to cook from the book. A brief search for a snack in my bag at a particularly hungry moment reminded me of energy bars and I decided to make “Panther Bars”.

The pictures for the same are currently travelling and having a good time in Goa but here is what went into it.

1.5 cup oats

1 cup kurmure or puffed rice

(hindsight tells me I could have avoided this as it inflated while baking and resulted in a funny puffy energy bar)

half cup toasted cashews

2-3 tablespoons flax seeds

1/2 tablespoon black and white sesame seeds

(can add any walnuts, peanuts, pistachios and any combination of seeds)

1/3 cup palm jaggery

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup regular white sugar

1/2 – 3/4 cup flavourless oil

I first roasted all the dry ingredients, then mixed them with the wet ingredients and baked it in a lined tray for about 30 minutes.

I did not get the perfect dry, crunchy bar but it was tasty and not very sweet.

Next month should be a super challenge. We are reading Julie and Julia.