Raspberry-Oat Bars {gluten-free}
April 23, 2011 § 8 Comments
Things happen in life that adjust one’s priorities. Time is needed to reflect, maybe even mourn. Favorite hobbies suddenly become re-categorized as unimportant, replaced instead with time alone in thought, perhaps some tears and certainly prayer. I believe this is good.
Thanks to my family and friends for their gentle encouragement.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of looking at that Plum Crumble from October! Making Roma Roma is well overdue for something new.
We’ve been enjoying these raspberry oat bars a lot the last few months. They helped get us through Winter’s dearth of fresh fruit. They are arguably the perfect balance between health food and decadent dessert, with a not-too-rich pecan shortbread base that doubles as a streusel topping and a thick layer of raspberry preserves in between. The best part? You won’t believe they’re gluten-free.
GLUTEN-FREE RASPBERRY OAT BARS
Adapted from Karen Demasco’s The Craft of Baking *
The first time I made these bars, the cookie base came out a little thicker than I prefer. So, I’ve since scaled the dough portion of the recipe back by a quarter, which also creates a slightly higher ratio of preserves to dough. Just the way I like it.
Also, my first batch came out salty. I read later that Demasco uses a particular brand of kosher salt in her baking. So, if using table salt or sea salt, it is necessary to decrease the salt by close to half, which I have done below.
I’ve never been a big fan of raspberry preserves with seeds. However, the seeds really compliment the other textures well.
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, clarified butter, Spectrum organic shortening or Earth Balance margarine
- 3/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons of your favorite gluten-free flour mix (I used 1/3 cup sorghum flour, 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon brown rice flour, 3 tablespoons potato starch and 3 tablespoons tapioca flour)
- 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 cup gluten-free quick-cooking oatmeal, like Rob’s Red Mill (not all oats are gluten-free!)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup good quality raspberry preserves **
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil an 8 inch square, metal baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Melt butter in saucepan or glass bowl in microwave.
Toast pecans on baking sheet in oven 5 minutes, cool.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, xanthan gum, granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt and baking soda. Stir in the gluten-free oats and chopped pecans. Pour in the melted butter and mix until well combined.
Press 2/3 of the dough into the bottom the oiled pan, until firmly and evenly packed.
Spread the raspberry preserves over the dough (an offset spatula like pictured above is perfect for this step). Sprinkle the remaining 1/3 of dough evenly over the preserves.
Bake until golden brown about 40 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature.
For easier cutting, transfer the cooled pan to the freezer for 20 minutes to harden. Remove bars from freezer, then from pan and cut into 2″ squares.
* For the original version of this recipe and the non-gluten free version go here. Just heed the note above about salt.
** I made these once with Smucker’s strawberry jam and the results were very disappointing. The jam layer turned a funny brown color and became very wet. I suspect it was either the high fructose corn syrup in Smucker’s, or the fact that I substituted strawberry for raspberry, but either way, from now on I’ll stick to a true, high quality raspberry preserve WITHOUT high fructose corn syrup. The pricier organic preserves appear to have worked the best.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
Grilled Chicken Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette {gluten-free, dairy-free}
Maple-Sunbutter Cookies {gluten-free, vegan}
Smoky Tomatillo Chili {gluten-free, dairy-free}
They sure were yummy but don’t forget about those lemon bars. I sure have not!! My mouth is watering as I type this. Yum yum
Thanks Andrea. I should get around to those lemon bars. You know, a special thanks to you, Erika and Susan. You guys have been so sweet to encourage me to get back on the blogging bandwagon.
Hooray for Roma Roma! Those look delicious and very pretty. Glad to see you’re back in action on the blog. XOXO
These are wonderful and I have had them with Raspberry preserves and with Apricot Raspberry preserves. The recipe does not indicate when to add the pecans – although I just put them in with the flour mixture. I was confused for a moment, though on whether or not they should just be sprinkled on top. Thanks for the beautiful photos and ideas. Cheers!
Thanks Christa. I’m glad you liked them. Sorry to leave out the step with the pecans; you guessed correctly though! I’ll be sure to correct that.
I was wondering if fresh crushed raspberries would work instead of the preserves?
Hi Margaret,
I think fresh raspberries alone might be too wet for the bars to set up, but maybe if you added a tablespoon or so of cornstarch (or tapioca starch or arrowroot), almost like making a pie filling. If you have success please let me know! Fresh berries would make such a nice light and summery bar.
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