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As I am staying with my Aunt and Uncle in Brighton this week I thought it would be nice to take down some baked treats with me. I had a bit of a think about what I could bake that would be vegan and delicious. During a quick browse of recipes in my Evernote account I came across the lovely Katie’s Raspberry Cobbler Bars and Mama Pea’s Berry Breakfast Bars and decided to make something along those lines. This is what I came up with!

Strawberry Coconut Oaty Buttery Bars (makes 9 bars, vegan)

• 1/2 cup of plain whole wheat flour
• 2 cups of Scottish Oats
• 1/4 cup of coconut flour (or could sub with more whole wheat flour)
• 1/4 cup of natural caster sugar
• 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 4 tbsp of vegan butter, melted (I used pure spread)
• 3/4 cup of fruit puree (I used apple and pear baby food!)
• 1/2 cup agave
• 1 tsp of coconut or vanilla extract

Filling:

• 2 cups or approx 300g of fresh strawberries, half chopped, half mashed
• 1 tsp of corn flour
• 1 tbsp of agave

Pre heat oven to 350F / 180c. Combining the flours, oats, sugar, baking powder and coconut in a bowl. In a separate bowl combine the fruit puree, melted pure spread, agave and extract then pour into dry ingredients and combine well. In another separate bowl combine your half mashed and half chopped strawberries with the agave and corn flour, mix until the corn flour has dissolved. Grease an 8x8 square pan (I used spray oil) and place just over half the oaty mix in the bottom pressing down firmly. Spread the strawberries on top, followed by the rest of the oaty mix, I crumbled mine on top of the strawberries. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin then turn out on to a board and cut into squares or bars. Enjoy!

These are wonderful, very reminiscent of a strawberry crumble in bar form! The base is lovely and dense, almost like a flap jack (in fact the oaty mix alone would make a great base for a healthy flapjack) and the subtle coconut and strawberry flavours work so well together. I found the sweetness of these just right, but if you prefer things very sweet then you could add more sugar. 

These also have a nice light buttery taste – you could of course try replacing the vegan butter with coconut oil for added coconut flavour!

Yum!

What’s the last thing you baked?