Raspberry Crumb Squares
I entered into a gluten-free, keto, and vegan challenge and we found this recipe on Pinterest. It’s a sweet treat that utilises coconut in many different forms, other nuts, and jam. I did cheat on the jam by not making it from scratch and chose honey as my sweetener, though there’s a few choices for sweeteners that’ll bind it. I had to google if honey was vegan and it seems it’s a controversial topic so this might not be true vegan. There are artificial sweeteners if you want to make sure you’re vegan. This was fun to make and my friends liked it, though I dislike coconut so I was doomed from the start.
Ingredients:
8x8 pan
parchment paper
food processor or mixing bowl and spoon
Bottom layer
2 cups almond meal
2 cups unsweetened desiccated coconut. (Apparently means dried and cut up. We used shaved.)
1/2 cup coconut flour
4 tbls virgin coconut oil, melted
6 tbls honey
2 tbls vanilla extract
8-10 tbls water
Jam
Jar of raspberry spread
Top layer
1 cup coconut chips
1/3 cup almond meal
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
3 tbls honey or other syrup based sweeteners
2 tbls coconut oil
Prep
Line the pan with the parchment paper and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F.
If you have a large enough food processor add all ingredients for bottom layer into it and use for about 10 seconds at a time until it starts to get sticky and malleable. If you don’t have a large enough one, add to it until you realise it’s futile, try halving it, then just get a bowl like the defeated human you are.
If it is still too crumbly to keep shape, add two more tbls of water and see if this improves. I took about 10 total and it worked great! It was easy and fast to mix together. I didn’t have to hate myself for not having a bigger processor.
Add this to the pan and flatten out with your glorious fists to make the crust. Bake this for ten minutes. It won’t look much different. Pull out and leave to cool all the way, however long it takes including watching some anime to pass the time.
Spread jam on top evenly and bake for 10 more minutes
While baking this round, make the top layer so it’s ready. Take a bowl and add the bottom layer parts and really get your hands and fingers in there so it’s all sticky together. I mean this. Jam them right in there and knead it all together like kitten massages.
Spread out on top of the jam. Bake for 10 more minutes to brown the top. Let this cool either in the air or the fridge or even the freezer for at least an hour to set all the parts!
Afterthoughts
This has more flavor and taste than those of us not used to eating with no processed or animal products would expect. You really do need to like coconut but the raspberry jam was a great inclusion to bring more of a flavor punch! An easy and fast treat to make, the worst is letting it cool!
