Cherry Crumb Bars
These gluten-free & vegan Cherry Crumb Bars are deliciously soft, lightly sweetened and so convenient. Great for a grab-and-go breakfast, snacks or desserts, they are easy to bake and a wholesome way to get in your fruits for the day. A lovely sweet treat for any occasion.
Alas, summer is wrapping up to a bitter-sweet ending. However, with the back to school season and cooler weather creeping up along comes the season for cherries to sweeten things up a bit. Cherries are now at their peak sweetness, juiciness, and utterly irresistible. I had bought a bag of cherries for this blog post and ended up finishing up the whole bag before I could make the squares. Oops! I ended up making them with frozen cherries instead, but they were just as delicious without any of the pitting involved. However, if you do have the patience for all the work, I’m sure they would taste fantastic.
I confess, I ate half of this batch of Cherry Crumb Bars to myself and my boyfriend ate the other half all in one day!! They are also lightly sweetened so most of the sweetness comes from the cherries themselves. You hardly need any sugar for this recipe. While I was making them, I had tried a little bit of the crumb crust and debated whether or not I should add more sugar to the crust because, by itself, it wasn’t sweet at all. My gut said not to, and so I didn’t, and they turned out just perfect! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
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Cherry Crumb Bars
Ingredients
Cherry Filling Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh or frozen cherries, pitted, sliced in half
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp Almond extract
Crumb Ingredients
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 cup cane sugar + 1 tsp (reserved for topping)
- 2 cups Bob's Red Mill all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp Xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Line a square 8" baking pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.
- In a medium bowl, mix in all the ingredients for the cherry filling.
- In a large bowl, mix in remaining from the crumb ingredients and combine with your hands until the mixture well combined but still has chunks.
- Press the crumb mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan but reserve 1 cup of the mix.
- Spread cherry filling evenly over the crust.
- Sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture over cherries and then sprinkle the remainder of the sugar.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until the top is golden. Cool for 15 minutes then transfer pan to the fridge for 30 minutes to harden. This will ensure your squares won't fall apart. Cut into 3 even rows of 2.5". Enjoy
