Saturday, September 2, 2017

Double up strawberry apple bars {vegan + no added sugar}

I am rather proud of these bars. They are sweetened entirely by strawberries and apples, but still taste sweet. The fat content comes entirely from coconut and cashew butter, which add flavour as well as texture. All in all, they highlight that whole foods can be sufficient when baking.


I made these last weekend, when the sun was shining and we had an unusually sunny bank holiday Monday. (Unusual because bank holidays in England are characteristically associated with rain.) We did make it down to the coast, to Hastings, where we had a picnic lunch and visited the sea shore. It wasn't so warm that we wanted to swim - and Mini Bite proved scared of the sea anyway! - but we enjoyed our outing. These bars accompanied the picnic.



As the name suggests, these involve strawberries and apples in two forms. This is a little more work, but it is worth it. I blitzed some fruit in my food processor to make a rough puree, but if you don't have a food processor, you could achieve the same result by stewing some fruit on the stove top. This is then paired with chopped fruit.


The resulting bars are deliciously fruity, and sweet enough without being cloying. They keep well over several days and hold together well for picnics or carrying about.

Double up strawberry and apple bars
Naturally sweetened, these bars combine blended and chopped fruit to beautiful effect
Vegan
Makes 12 - 16 bars

Author: Bite-sized thoughts


Ingredients
1 cup strawberries, dehulled and roughly chopped
2 apples, roughly chopped
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp cashew butter
1 cup unsweetened almond milk, or non-dairy milk of choice

Method
Preheat your oven to 170'C (325'F) and line a square baking tin with non-stick paper.

Divide your strawberries and apples in half. Add half to a food processor and process briefly until the fruit forms a rough puree. (If you don't have a food processor, stew on the stove top instead and mash the fruit to achieve the same result.) Set aside, along with the remaining chopped fruit.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, coconut and baking powder. Add the pureed fruit, vanilla, cashew butter and milk and stir through. Fold in the remaining chopped fruit.

Transfer the batter to your prepared tin and bake for 30 minutes, or until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Allow to cool before cutting into slices.


What have you been snacking on this week?

6 comments:

  1. I love recipes with unexpected ingredients or preparations like this - it's good to challenge all your cooking assumptions, especially when it involves strawberries! Clever stuff.

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  2. these sound lovely - I am sure they would make great work snacks as well as holiday snacks - mini bite looks like she is enjoying the beach - though I still find british beaches weird when there are pebbles instead of sand - but it is so much cleaner when you leave without sand everywhere.

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    Replies
    1. Apparently Hastings has some sand beaches too but we didn't spot them. The pebbles are attractive (I think) and as you say, neater afterwards - but they do hurt my feet to walk on!

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  3. These do look very tasty - I ownder if they would work with raspberries in place of strawberries. Such as sweet pic of mini bite on the picnic blanket upon a beach that is more shingle than sand, still its makes for a day out.
    By the way I have updated the Cheltenham Vegan Fair post with more photos if you want to check it out again
    https://allotment2kitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/cheltenham-vegan-fair-and-courgetti.html#more

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Shaheen and for the updated link :-)

      I think raspberries would work just as well - probably any berries in truth.

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  4. These sound delicious and it's good to hear you can make great vegan baked goods.

    ReplyDelete

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