Berry Oat Bars

Ingredients:

2 cups gluten free whole grain oats

2 cups gluten free flour (I like to use gluten free oat flour)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4-1/3 cup Truvia or coconut sugar (optional: I usually omit it, but if you like your bars sweeter, add it)

3/4 cup vegan “butter”

15 oz Polaner All Fruit with Fiber (your choice of flavor)

Baking Instructions:

1.  Line a 9 x 13 pan with parchment paper so there are “wings” hanging over the edges, and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2.  Mix together the oats, flour, cinnamon, salt and Truvia or coconut sugar, if using in a large bowl.

3.  Put the “butter” into the oat mixture in pieces and use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the oat mixture until it’s crumbly and the butter is incorporated into the mixture. (The easiest way to incorporate the butter is to use clean hands, but for folks who don’t like to get messy, the pastry blender works. Just be sure everything is completely mixed and not dry.)

4.  Remove about 1/3 of the mixture and put it aside for the topping. Pat the remaining 2/3 into the bottom of the 9 x 13 pan to form a crust.

5.  Spread the Polaner All Fruit carefully over the crust.  (We’ve made raspberry, strawberry, apricot, blueberry, etc….) 

6.  Evenly distribute the remaining 1/3 mixture over the top of the all fruit.  You will have open spots of jam showing.  This is fine.

7.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes.  The oats will be golden brown and the jam bubbly.

8.  Remove from the oven and put the pan onto a wire cooling rack.  It’s very important that you allow the bars to completely cool.

9.  Once the bars are completely cooled, you can carefully remove them from the pan using the parchment paper and cut them into the desired size, or you can cut them directly in the pan and remove them one by one.