Hi Everyone,
Happy Monday to you. Where does the weekend go? The weather has been hot here, and I mean hot! I am sitting here cooking and I have the air on. I must have drank a gallon of water today. My Hubbie is working in the garage, he must be dying out there. He’s just crazy! I had intentions of walking to the store, maybe picking up a green ice tea from Starbucks, but no I just can’t move. I don’t even know what I did Sunday afternoon, but drink water and eat strawberries.
I did however manage to make you a treat before it got to hot out.
These are my Cherry Pie Crumble Bars. They taste like little slices of Cherry Pie. I asked Jenny what she thought and she loved them and her exact words were these really do taste like Cherry Pie. After my post yesterday for the Cherry Quick Jam, I decided on making cherry pie bars. This idea came from that darn Starbucks! Everytime I go in there I see their Blueberry Oat Bars and I want one. I never had one, but they look good. I was originally going to make Blueberry Bars, but I thought my jam would taste way better in a bar. The only downfall is I am almost out of jam!! But I do have enough left to put on my frozen yogurt!
The crust of the bars is made with an oat base and I topped it with a oats, almond, coconut crumble topping. These bars are perfect! I tried to stay away from sugar, but I ended up using 2 tablespoons of coconut sugar. This was the first time I ever used it and wow, does it taste like coconut! Even with the coconut sugar and coconut flakes, you don’t taste the coconut at all in this recipe. You just taste cherries! These bars are extremely healthy for you and the added fat in the recipe is from coconut oil and almond meal, which is a good fat! I’m really proud of this recipe, it was one of those add this and that, to make it. I took the idea from Oh She Glows Berry Bliss Oat Squares for the base of the bars. I wanted a heavier base than my Almond Raspberry Bars because I needed something to hold the cherries and I knew Angela’s Oat Square base would be perfect! I have made her Berry Bliss Bars so many times, that my Husband begged me to stop making them, because he was so sick of them. Hey what can I say? When you find something you like, you just keep making it, until you no longer want it.
If you haven’t already, you really need to make the Cherry Jam! It’s WAY better than store-bought jam. the thick chunks of cherries in these bars is what really makes it. Now I want to tell you, don’t be scared of the ingredients for this recipe. It’s not hard to make, and most of the ingredients are in your pantry. So when you see it, don’t be discouraged and think thats way to much work. It took me 10 minutes to prepare these bars. Ok, one more picture until the recipe.
- 1½ cups Cherry Quick Jam or cherry preserves
- 1 tsp. maple syrup to sweeten jam (optional)
- **For Base**
- ¾ cup oat flour
- ¾ cups oatmeal (not quick oats)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ⅓ cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- **Topping**
- ¼ cup almond meal
- ¼ cup shredded coconut, unsweetened
- ¼ cup oat flour
- ¼ cup oatmeal
- ¼ tsp. cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. Coconut Oil, melted
- 2 Tbsp. coconut sugar or brown sugar
- Preheat oven to 375F spray an 8 x8 pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
- Base: In a bowl add oat flour,oats, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into large bowl. Stir. Now add in the applesauce, maple syrup, water, vanilla and mix well. Pour batter into the prepared pan and push down firmly with fingers to smooth out.
- In a small bowl add Cherry Quick Jam and maple syrup, and spread over top of oat mixture.
- In a separate bowl add almond meal, shredded, coconut, ¼ cup oat flour, ¼ cup oats, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Add coconut oil and coconut sugar. Crumble mixture with your fingers. Sprinkle over top of Cherry mixture.
- Bake for 30 - 35 mins. at 375F or until the top is slightly golden and firm. Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting into squares.
If your using cherry preserves, you do not need to add the maple syrup to the jam. I did this to make my jam a little sweeter.
If you do not have coconut sugar, use brown sugar instead.
Calories per bar: 99, Fat: 3.2, Cholesterol: 0, Sodium: 107, Potassium: 70, Carbs: 16.3, Fiber: 2.1, Sugar: 6.3, Protein: 2.3
Well there you have it! A Cherry Pie Crumble Bar that is healthy, full of good things and came just under 100 calories. I can not complain about these at all. There loaded with lots of flavor, and if you like cherries, you will love these bars!
Well, time for me to get off my butt and make something for dinner! Even though I don’t feel like it! maybe I should just have another Cherry Pie Crumble Bar?
Have a great week! By the way, I have some really yummy recipes coming this week, and one of them, I am really excited to share with you, but that one will wait till Wednesday. Want a hint? It’s breakfast! Can you guess? Not giving you anymore clues!
See you tomorrow!
Toodles!
Jennifer
P.S. I just realized these are vegan, pretty cool!
