MAKES 1 DOZEN 2½-INCH JACKS
When my son was a newborn, he wouldn’t sleep unless he was in motion. And not just a gentle rocking—no, it had to be in the car, traveling at least 50 miles per hour to lull him to sleep (you couldn’t tell me differently about that speed—mothers of newborns are like scientists this way). So most afternoons I could be found aimlessly cruising the freeways of the Bay Area like a deranged Sandy Bullock, desperate for him to finally crash.
During one of these involuntary road trips, I found myself starving and delirious with exhaustion and low blood sugar, but unable to stop the car, lest I wake the ticking time bomb in the backseat. After several drive-thru lines were deemed too long, I came upon a random coffee shop with a drive-up window, and placed my order in a hushed tone, applying and releasing the brake, asking for “any food you have that might be sort of healthy, but I don’t really care.” In return, I was given something called an oat jack. Chewy, slightly sweet, and packed with oats, nuts, and seeds, it was the ultimate in portable, edible sanity. It quite possibly saved my life that day. And now I pass my version of it on to you.
2 cups (7 ounces/200 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
½ cup (3½ ounces/100 grams) pitted Medjool dates (about 5 large)
⅓ cup (1 ounce/28 grams) unsweetened shredded coconut
⅓ cup (1½ ounces/43 grams) pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds)
¼ cup (1½ ounces/43 grams) raisins
¼ cup (1¼ ounces/43 grams) roasted, salted sunflower seeds
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup (6 ounces/168 grams) brown rice syrup or honey*
⅓ cup (2⅝ ounces/75 grams) coconut, grapeseed, or canola oil
¼ cup (1⅝ ounces/47 grams) rapadura, turbinado, or coconut sugar
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
*Both contribute moisture and chew but with varying degrees of sweetness. Honey will give you sweeter jacks.
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Place 1 cup of the oats into a large mixing bowl. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, grind the remaining 1 cup of oats to a flour (a few tweedy bits left in the mix is fine). Dump the oat flour into the mixing bowl. Add the dates to the processor and pulse until the dates are very finely chopped and start to cling together. Scrape the chopped dates into the bowl with the oats.
3. Add the coconut, pepitas, raisins, sunflower seeds, and cinnamon into the mixing bowl. Stir the mixture with your fingertips so that the oat flour helps to de-clump the dates.
4. In a small saucepan, combine the brown rice syrup, oil, rapadura, and salt. Place the pan over medium heat and stir gently, letting the syrup warm slowly. Do not let the syrup boil—heat it just to a bare simmer until the rapadura dissolves (if the syrup threatens to boil, lower the heat). Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Pour the syrup into the mixing bowl. With a large heatproof spatula, stir the dough until it’s evenly moistened with no dry pockets. Use a standard ice cream scoop to portion the dough into the muffin cups, a level ¼ cup per oat jack.
6. Bake until lightly golden, 25 to 30 minutes. Don’t overbake, or you’ll toughen the jacks. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
TIP: Made with brown rice syrup and gluten-free oats, these are vegan and gluten-free!
TIP: While good as soon as the jacks have cooled completely, the texture and flavor are even better the next day. The jacks can also be tightly wrapped and frozen for up to 1 month.