Experimental cooking - Fruit slice

I have a few favourite things I like in a slice so I decided to experiment and make up a recipe myself. Please be aware that this is a work in progress and don't try this at home. lol Well, not unless you like to eat experiments.

Fig and Apricot Slice

Chop up one pack of dried figs and one pack of dried apricots. I used HB apricots. Place in a saucepan with 400ml of apple juice. Boil until the figs have softened nicely. Remove a little juice and add 1 Tbsp of cornflour. Mix to dissolve cornflour then add back to saucepan and cook until juices thicken. Set aside to cool.

Melt 250g butter and remove from stove top. Add 1 1/2 cups SR flour, 1 1/2 cups brown sugar and 1 cup rolled oats. Mix well. Pat this mixture down well in a 8x13 pan. Was about an inch thick. Then pour fruit mixture over the top and spread out.

Rub 60g butter into 4 Tbsp brown sugar, 6 Tbsp plain flour, 1/4 tsp (too much for my taste, will use less next time) nutmeg. Then add 1/4 cup of chopped pecans. Sprinkle over the top of the fruit.

Back in the oven at 180 C until the top is nicely browned and the bottom firm around the edges.

Result - Sweet and fruity, loved the topping except as noted the excessive nutmeg. The fruit made the bottom quite soft and gooey when it was warm. I refrigerated it and found the bottom firmed up well, all that butter I guess. It was hard to cut after refrigeration but still tasted nice.

I think next time I would try to halve the bottom mixture so it doesn't get so soggy from the fruit and I will cut it up straight away before refrigerating. I have also considered using only apricots and doing 2 packets of them as figs can be rather expensive.

Best wishes
Jen