How does raspberry oats bars sound to you? 😀
I bought some beautiful raspberries the other day and wanted to make something really delicious with them, so their flavor can shine and not be covered with loads of other ingredients. So I started to research a bit and this recipe came out for Raspberry crumb bars by Cooking classy blog (you can see it here) and honestly this is where the power of food photography comes up as I was so attracted by the gorgeous photos and well, let’s just say that those photos make me drool!
That’s actually one of the main reasons why I fell in love with food photography, the fact that if done well, it can evoke strong emotions and reactions as well as bring up memories of special times in our lives. It truly is a form of art and there is so much that goes into creating a good food image, concept, setting, styling, choosing the best fresh ingredients, technical aspect, playing with light, creative aspect, editing… It means creating something that will evoke positive emotions in other people.
For me personally raspberries always bring back memories of my childhood, my grandmother and summer holidays in Slovenia where I played outside barefoot on the grass and every afternoon picked sweet raspberries from the garden and then ate them with sugar, feeling happy and carefree… I still remember the taste of those raspberries and that feeling…
As adults we should really try to worry less and go back to enjoying those little things we did as children. We spend so much time stressing and worrying and very often that doesn’t help at all, in fact just makes everything worst. Let’s try to be more carefree (this from a person who worries about everybody and everything all the time!!! lol). Are you with me? 🙂
I made few changes to the original recipe because I wanted to make it a bit healthier but that it still tastes amazing and I think I achieved that. These bars are absolutely delicious! Some of the changes I made are that I used coconut oil instead of butter, half all-purpose and half wholewheat flour instead of all-purpose and that I didn’t use store bought jam which has a lot of sugar in it but I made my own quick 5 minute version with agave syrup. Once again, you can find the original recipe here.
Recipe in English:
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup wholewheat flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ½ cup raw cane sugar (or coconut sugar)
- ½ cup melted coconut oil
- For raspberry jam:
- 2 cups (250 g) raspberries (fresh or frozen)
- ½ cup agave syrup
- 1 vanilla bean seeds (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
- 1 tbsp flour
- Note: 1 cup = 250 ml
- Preheat oven to 175 C (350 F).
- Line a 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 inch) square baking dish with parchment paper (not necessary if you use non stick baking dish like the one I used).
- Prepare the raspberry jam/sauce. In a medium saucepan combine the raspberries, agave syrup, vanilla and 1 tbsp of flour and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Let it cool slightly.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk flour, baking soda and salt. Add oats and sugar and mix to combine.
- Then add melted coconut oil and mix well. Take ⅔ rd of oats mixture and press it into baking dish using your fingers.
- Spread the raspberry jam/sauce over the oats mixture and finally sprinkle the rest of the mixture on top.
- Bake for about 35-40 min until golden brown. Allow to cool before cutting into squares. Enjoy!
- Note: the bars keep well on the room temperature in the airtight container if it's not too hot. If you keep them in the fridge, they will harden as coconut oil hardens in the fridge so remove them to room temperature about 10 min before serving. If you want to make bigger quantity, just double the ingredients and bake in a larger rectangular baking dish.
Recipe in Croatian / Recept na hrvatskom:
- SASTOJCI
- ½ salice glatkog brasna
- ½ salice integralnog ili pirovog brasna
- ½ zlicice soda bikarbone
- prstohvat soli
- 1 salica zobenih pahuljica
- ½ salice sirovog nerafiniranog secera (ili kokosovog secera)
- ½ salice kokosovog ulja, otopljenog
- Za pekmez od malina
- 2 salice (250 g) malina, smrznutih ili svjezih
- ½ salice javorovog ili agavinog sirupa
- 1 stapic vanilije, sjemenke (ili 1 zlicica vanilin ekstrakta)
- 1 zlica brasna
- Napomena: 1 salica = 250 ml
- PRIPREMA
- Zagrijte pecnicu na 175 C.
- Oblozite kalup velicine 20 x 20 cm papirom za pecenje (nije potrebno ako koristite silkonski kalup kao na slici).
- Pripremite pekmez od malina tako sto u posudu srednje velicine stavite maline, javorov ili agavin sirup, vaniliju i zlicu brasna i kuhajte na laganoj vatri 10-ak minuta. Ostavite sastrane da se ohladi.
- U vecoj zdjeli izmijesajte brasno, soda bikarbonu i sol. Dodajte zobene pahuljice i secer i te dobro promijesajte.
- Zatim dodajte otopljeno kokosovo ulje i promijesajte.
- Uzmite ⅔ smjese i prstima pritisnite u pripremljeni kalup.
- Rasporedite skuhani pekmez od malina preko cijele povrsine i na kraju posujte sa ostatkom smjese od zobenih pahuljica.
- Peci 35-40 minuta dok ne dobiju zlatno-smedju boju. Dobro ohladite prije rezanja na kocke. Dobar tek!
- Napomena: Kocke se mogu drzati u zatvorenoj kutiji na sobnoj temperaturi ukoliko nije vruce. Ako se drze u frizideru, postanu malo tvrdje jer se kokosovo ulje stvrdne pa ih izvadite 20-ak minuta prije serviranja. Ako zelite vecu kolicinu, samo poduplajte sve sastojke i pecite u vecem kalupu.
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Can these be frozen?
Yes, they can! 🙂
Excellent thank you =)
Thank you! This will be a lovely dessert to make for my son’s girlfriend who is vegan, but has a nut allergy. So many vegan recipes include nuts, so I was happy to find one as delicious as this, and nutfree too.
Thank you so much for your comment! I am so glad you like this recipe as this is one the favourite in my family and we all love it (specially my mum!),
it’s also very easy to make so we make it often for a little afternoon treat. 🙂
I will try this with strawberries instead since I cannot stand raspberries! Looks really good!
Oh I think it will be amazing with strawberries too! Let me know if you try it out! 🙂
I made these with spelt flour and WWPastry flour and Smuckers sugar free raspberry preserves. Worked well and THEY ARE DELICIOUS!
I’m so glad you liked the recipe, thank you for visiting and trying it out!
Hi, can i use oat flour to make these and coconut suGar?
Hello! Definitely you can use coconut sugar as sweetener but oat flour has much finer texture than oats so not sure how that would work in this recipe.