Hello my friends! I hope you all had an awesome weekend! I am on a total high from this weekend’s performance because it was absolute perfection! I am so proud of my Ryan because he is the best conductor. I have all the right to be biased because it is so true. Ask around. 🙂
Saturday, the day of the performance, we had a 3 1/2 hour rehearsal period because we had to work with the steel drum band that had traveled from Detroit to perform with us. The rehearsal was smooth and Ryan kept on reminding all the Holland Chorale not to over sing since our performance was that VERY evening. Folks, it was hard not to over sing since we had that steel drum band. It was definitely so beautiful to listen to different instruments. God is wonderful how he allows people to discover uses for instruments. Here is a sample of our rehearsal: (How much ghetto can I get? Silly Youtube tells me it has not been processed but it is! Click here to listen}
Sunday was of course a day of rest since we needed it VERY much. We visited out friends church and worshipped with a huge congregation. Holland is small and there are several churches in the area, but I never thought it would have a choir close to 125 people. Reminds me of my choir back in Texas. We later took a nap and then enjoyed a lovely hike in a new reserve in town. I captured the beautiful colors of the leaves and tried not to inconvenience the friends we were with by taking pictures of every gorgeous leaf I found. What can I say, I love FALL!!!
As soon as I got home last night I baked something right up. Can you tell I missed being in MY kitchen??? I have had several ideas floating through my head working with some freezer jam that I have had in my fridge. I knew I needed to make something delicious and perfect with my favorite beverage. I wanted to make something that was gluten-free but I did not quite get that adventurous since I did not have that much time in the kitchen.
I paired dark chocolate with raspberry and oats and came out with a delicious bar that both Ryan and I speechless as we took turns taking bites. We were watching Everything’s Fine and boy was it FINE! The flavors combined pretty perfect even to the point Ryan asked for seconds. As I look at my kitchen this morning I wonder how I have JUST 3 bars left. Seriously folks. I can’t keep the pan full around here.
This is a good thing! Even though I used 1 cup of oat flour and 1 cup of spelt, if you feel adventurous, you are welcome to try making this with 2 cups of gluten-free oat flour. I will be trying it in the future but I needed to share the recipe ASAP. Enjoy the recipe because they won’t last in your an for long! 🙂
Deep Dish Chocolate-Raspberry Oat Bars
print recipe
makes 9 bars (9×9 glass pan)
Crust
1 cup Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free oat flour
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 chia egg (1 Tbsp ground chia seeds + 4 Tbsp warm water)
or flaxseed egg (1 Tbsp ground flaxseed meal + 4 Tbsp warm water)
2 Tablespoons SO Delicious coconut milk
Filling
1 cup raspberry freezer jam or store-bought jam
Topping
3/4 cup gluten-free oats (Bob’s Red Mill)
2 Tbsp Tropical Traditions coconut oil, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 Tbsp maple syrup
3 Tbsp oat flour
3 Tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup dark chocolate pieces
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a 9×9 pan with coconut non-stick spray.
Crust preparation
Mix up your chia egg and set aside for 5 minutes. In a medium bowl mix the spelt and oat flours, baking soda, and salt. Add maple syrup, brown sugar, and coconut milk to the chia egg is and combine well. Add 1/2 cup coconut oil to flour mixture and using a fork or patry cutter, combine the two ingredients until it resembles wet sand. Add the wet ingredients and combine well.
Press dough into the 9×9 dish, allowing the dough to rise above the edges of the pan about 1 inch. This is not a layer, but more a crust to contain the filling.
Add 1 cup of raspberry jam onto the crust and spread evenly.
Topping preparation
In a medium add oats and melted coconut oil and combine well. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Add the crumble topping to the raspberry mixture and spread evenly.
Bake for 45 minutes and cool for another 45 minutes. These bars are so good a little warm though. They are even better the NEXT day! I wrapped one up for Ryan for lunch so I know he will like that surprise. 🙂
Note: I have already seen people make comments about how this post is ruined since I used half spelt and half oat flour. I am limiting my gluten and NOT elmininating it. This would be the reason the blog states raw and vegan recipes and not gluten-free. I will be indicating which recipes are specfically are gluten-free for those readers. I am in the process of testing this recipe as completely gluten-free. Thanks! 🙂
