Mulberry-Oats Bites

Jo's experiments #1 : A mulberry-oats based super healthy snack - gluten-free, no refined sugar, no oil/butter!

My mother-in-law (Mom) and myself have a big common connection - both of us spent their adolescent life in or around Delhi. We gel on topics that are quintessential characteristics of that region and the other family members just stare at our giggling faces (**chirping crickets**). So in-line with those memories came Mulberries or commonly known as "Shahatoot" (शहतूत) in hindi. We recently got hands on to a box of fresh plucked mulberries, out of which both of us joyfully ate some of it as it is and then wondered whether we can devise some recipe out of it or not.

The biggest challenge that we felt was the watery juicy nature of the fruit - we were lucky to get very fresh and juicy fruit but combining it together with anything felt like a disaster. So we had oats, muesli in our mind that could combine and help in keeping the original flavour of the fruit. And boy, one thing after another we landed up in a totally surprising flavourful recipe.

So here it goes:

Ingredients:

• 100gm Mulberries

• 50gm Muesli

• 2 TBSP honey

• 1 TBSP cornflour

• Pinch of Baking soda and Baking powder

• 1 TBSP oats

• For Compote: 14-15 pieces of mulberries, 4 tsp of brown sugar

Process:

• Take 50gm Muesli (we used Baggry's Nuts & Raisins from our breakfast stash)

• Cut the mulberries into small chunks and add into muesli

• Add 2 TBSP honey to the mix

• Add 1 TBSP cornflour, pinch of baking soda and baking powder and mix them all together

• The dough will look like deep violet color and will be moist in texture

• Make small balls and roll them in oats such that it gets evenly coated on outside.

• Put the balls on tray and bake in pre-heated oven at 180 deg for 18 mins

• After baking, take the tray out for cooling and now we proceed to make the compote

• For compote, take around 14-15 mulberries and cut them in pieces. We added the leftover juice of the fruit in it as well coz why not?! hehe :)

• Put them in a pan and add brown sugar. Mix the two till they seem to have dissolved

• Take it off from heat as syrupy texture is reached. Remember not to keep on boil beyond 3-4 mins.

• Drizzle the compote on the fresh baked (now cooled) oats-mulberry balls and its ready to gobble.

Recommendation: Oats-mulberry bites along with compote will go best with vanilla icecream. Go try for yourself!