Oat and Raisin Desk Drawer Bars
Soft oat bars with honey, raisins, and nuts: a homemade energy snack perfect for powering through between meetings or during a late-night coding session.
Soft oat bars with honey, raisins, and nuts: a homemade energy snack perfect for powering through between meetings or during a late-night coding session.
When I was writing messages at midnight for Systers, my mailing list, I wasn't going to get up every hour to snack. So I always kept a few in my drawer: oats, honey, raisins, nuts—you mix, you press, you bake, and you cut into bars. You can eat them one-handed, no crumbs on the keyboard, and they give you just enough energy to finish your thought before you turn off the screen.
- •Rolled oats — a large amount (base)
- •Honey — generously (sweet binder)
- •Raisins — a handful (fruit)
- •Nuts — a handful (crunch)
- •Butter — a little (binder)
- •Cinnamon — a pinch (spice)
Oat and Raisin Desk Drawer Bars
Soft oat bars with honey, raisins, and nuts: a homemade energy snack perfect for powering through between meetings or during a late-night coding session.
Why this dish? Long coding and writing sessions—Anita Borg notably launched Systers, the first mailing list for women in computing—call for a snack that can be nibbled one-handed without leaving the keyboard. Homemade granola bars, energy-packed and easy to keep in a drawer, embody this discreet refueling of daily tech life.
When I was writing messages at midnight for Systers, my mailing list, I wasn't going to get up every hour to snack. So I always kept a few in my drawer: oats, honey, raisins, nuts—you mix, you press, you bake, and you cut into bars. You can eat them one-handed, no crumbs on the keyboard, and they give you just enough energy to finish your thought before you turn off the screen.
Ingredients (period version)
- Rolled oats — a large amount (base)
- Honey — generously (sweet binder)
- Raisins — a handful (fruit)
- Nuts — a handful (crunch)
- Butter — a little (binder)
- Cinnamon — a pinch (spice)
Ingredients
- Rolled oats — 200 g (base)
- Honey — 100 g (sweet binder)
- Butter — 60 g (binder)
- Brown sugar — 40 g (sweetener)
- Raisins — 60 g (fruit)
- Chopped walnuts or almonds — 60 g (crunch)
- Cinnamon — 1/2 tsp (spice)
- Salt — 1 pinch (balance)
Method
- Preheat oven to 170°C and line a small square baking pan with parchment paper.
- Gently melt butter, honey, and brown sugar in a saucepan.
- Off the heat, mix oats, raisins, nuts, cinnamon, and salt, then pour in the liquid mixture.
- Press the mixture firmly into the pan.
- Bake 20-25 minutes until edges are golden; cool completely before cutting into bars.
How it was made : Granola bars, descendants of granola invented in American health circles in the 19th century, became an iconic office snack of the late 20th century, at the crossroads of 'healthy' culture and the need to eat quickly at work.
The contemporary twist : Dip half of each bar in dark chocolate and sprinkle with sea salt for a 'sprint treat' version.
Anita Borg · Charactorium