I can't really decide if these are more dessert-y or breakfast-y, so I'll leave that up to you. I've been experimenting more with gluten-free baking lately, and I'm happy to say that this recipe is definitely one for the books! I used oat flour for the crust and crumble over traditional flour, and the toasted flavour the oats develop during baking I much prefer! The filling is full of fresh strawberries, sweetened with a little scoop of coconut sugar, and I added some lemon zest to play with the berries' natural tartness. As tasty as the fruit filling is, the real showstopper here in my opinion is the crumble top, that's made with my favourite organic virgin coconut oil by Silkeny! This is the second time I've worked on a recipe with Silkeny, and I really am continually impressed by their coconut oil. It's so silky and has a light coconut flavour which I really like in this recipe. So, thank you to Silkeny and Vista Magazine Canada for partnering with me on this recipe!
This recipe is vegan, gluten free, and refined sugar free.
If you make this recipe and want to show off on IG, you can tag me, @gardentotableblog.ca!
Makes 16 squares
Ready in 1 hour, 15 minutes + overnight
Ingredients
Crust & crumble
1 cup oat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup Silkeny Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, chilled
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1 flax egg
Strawberry filling
2 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
1/3 cup coconut sugar
1 tablespoon corn or tapioca starch
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 F
Grease an 8x8 glass baking pan with coconut oil (about a teaspoon extra, not taken from the ingredient list)
In a mixing bowl, combine all filling ingredients and set aside
For the crust and crumble, in a separate mixing bowl, mix together the oat flour, rolled oats, baking powder, salt, coconut sugar, and flax egg. Add chilled coconut oil, 1 teaspoon at a time. Use a fork, whisk, or pastry blender to cut the cold coconut oil into the dry ingredients. You are finished with this step when small pea-sized pieces of the solid coconut oil are evenly distributed through out the crumble. If you notice it's getting to warm, refrigerate dough for 30 minutes before finishing this process
Press 3/4 of the crust and crumble dough into the bottom of the pan to create the crust
Spoon strawberry filling evenly over the crust. If there's excess liquid from the strawberries, try to leave it in the bowl when you're pouring the filling over the crust
Scatter randomly sized chunks of the remaining dough on top of the strawberries. It doesn't have to be perfect, and the pieces don't have to touch each other. The dough will spread as it bakes and the chunks will piece together to create a crumble, with some strawberry filling still exposed like in the picture
Bake for 35-40 minutes until the top is golden. You will notice any liquid slightly bubbling along the edges of the pan, and the strawberries around the edges will have darkened in colour
Let cool completely in the baking pan, and then refrigerate overnight
The next day, turn the crumble out onto your serving tray and slice into 16 square shaped bars
Remember
If you don't have oat flour, easily make it by blending whole rolled oats in the food processor or blender. It's about the same amount of whole rolled oats to make the same amount of oat flour, but I would add a few extra tablespoons just in case
Disclaimer
This recipe was made in collaboration with Silkeny and Vista Magazine Canada. All opinions are my own!