I love the idea of raspberry oat bars. They're classic. They're simple. They're made with oats and I love their crumbly crust. But, I often find them too sweet and quite frankly, uninspiring. Starting with Real Simple's recipe as a base (http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/oatmeal-raspberry-jam-bars?print=), and using the inspiration of a blood orange in my fruit basket, I came up with this combination, which feels both homey and more adventurous. Fig stands in for raspberry though if you're a die-hard raspberry fan, would still work fine. Whole wheat flour adds nuttiness to the crust while cardamom adds a touch of warmth. Up the amount of cardamom if you want more of its heat and feel free to use a regular orange, orange in place of the red blood orange if that's what you have on hand.

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