Vegan Coconut Bars
Sometimes you just need a treat.
After all, you've been so good. You've been eating fresh veggies and brown rice. You've been making healing soup with cabbage and drinking green tea. You've been diligent checking labels for gluten, casein, egg, soy, peanuts, almonds, chicken broth, lemon, pineapple- just to name a few of the culprits standing between you and optimum health.
So it's time for something sweet. Something moist and chewy and perfect with a cup of tea...
Vegan Coconut Bars
Egg-free baking is tricky. And at high altitude, even trickier. Truth be told, I've tossed a dozen egg-free experiments into the trash this summer. But these little vegan gems were blog-worthy.
Goddess Tip:: Chill before eating for best texture!
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan with vegan shortening. Dust with a bit of gluten-free flour.
Whisk together dry ingredients:
1/3 cup coconut flour
2/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
In a separate bowl, beat to combine:
3/4 cup organic brown sugar or sucanat, if you prefer
1/2 cup applesauce
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon agave
1/3 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
3 tablespoons vanilla rice milk
When the wet mixture is smooth, slowly add in the dry ingredient mix and beat just until combined.
Add in by hand:
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
Dump the batter into the prepared baking dish and spread it evenly. Sprinkle on extra chocolate chips if you like (and press them gently into the top).
Bake in the center of a pre-heated oven until the batter is set and slightly golden brown - anywhere from 22 to 30 minutes, depending upon altitude (at high altitude these took almost 35 minutes to bake). The surface should be slightly firm, like a blond brownie (if a finger touch leaves a dent, bake a tad longer).
Cool completely on a wire rack; chill before cutting and wrapping.
These bars are moist and chewy, and are best eaten chilled. Hot from the oven they fall apart.
Makes 15 cookie bars.
![Karina's Kitchen: Recipes from a [Gluten-Free] Goddess Blog](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c330/crowdreamer19/KarinasKitchen_Footer400.jpg)
After all, you've been so good. You've been eating fresh veggies and brown rice. You've been making healing soup with cabbage and drinking green tea. You've been diligent checking labels for gluten, casein, egg, soy, peanuts, almonds, chicken broth, lemon, pineapple- just to name a few of the culprits standing between you and optimum health.
So it's time for something sweet. Something moist and chewy and perfect with a cup of tea...
Vegan Coconut Bars
Egg-free baking is tricky. And at high altitude, even trickier. Truth be told, I've tossed a dozen egg-free experiments into the trash this summer. But these little vegan gems were blog-worthy.
Goddess Tip:: Chill before eating for best texture!
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8x8-inch baking pan with vegan shortening. Dust with a bit of gluten-free flour.
Whisk together dry ingredients:
1/3 cup coconut flour
2/3 cup rice flour
1/3 cup tapioca starch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
In a separate bowl, beat to combine:
3/4 cup organic brown sugar or sucanat, if you prefer
1/2 cup applesauce
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon agave
1/3 cup light olive oil or vegetable oil
3 tablespoons vanilla rice milk
When the wet mixture is smooth, slowly add in the dry ingredient mix and beat just until combined.
Add in by hand:
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips
Dump the batter into the prepared baking dish and spread it evenly. Sprinkle on extra chocolate chips if you like (and press them gently into the top).
Bake in the center of a pre-heated oven until the batter is set and slightly golden brown - anywhere from 22 to 30 minutes, depending upon altitude (at high altitude these took almost 35 minutes to bake). The surface should be slightly firm, like a blond brownie (if a finger touch leaves a dent, bake a tad longer).
Cool completely on a wire rack; chill before cutting and wrapping.
These bars are moist and chewy, and are best eaten chilled. Hot from the oven they fall apart.
Makes 15 cookie bars.
9 spoons in the pot:
Hi Karina,
Thank you so much for your courageous upwards-and-onwards attitude you display with your new found food allergies. The vegan coconut bars look yummy and I'm going to make them asap. My 10 year old dd is getting up the courage to do the six food elimination diet (http://lib.bioinfo.pl/pmid:16860614) and treats are sooo important! Especially when all your friends have cupcakes and candy bars and stuff...
thankyou so much for continuing to post, despite the new limitations on your diet. right now i'm down to tofu and 5 vegetables, so i can't actually eat any of the wonderful looking things you post, but just knowing that there are other people out there going through something similar makes a big difference -- without it i think i would feel much more alone, and very very frightened.
i do like to cook for other people, though, so i'm really looking forward to trying out some of your recipes on family and friends. interesting recipes that are both vegan and gluten-free are few and far between, so they're very much appreciated.
a bit more on-topic, have you tried 'flax eggs' as a binder for baking? they're quite effective, don't really interfere with the taste or texture, and add valuable omega-3.
1 tablespoon of flax meal + 2 tablespoons of hot water (beaten lightly with a fork and then left to sit for about 5 minutes) is equivalent to 1 egg.
makes a big difference to the disintegrating-baking.
Holy moley these look good! Jess and I just came across some semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips ourselves, and I was going to use them to make your flourless chocolate cake. Maybe I'll make these first!
I am new to the gluten-free life and have just started to try to bake and replace food. THANK you for such wonderful treats and insight. I'm also a type II diabetic (for 25 years) so I appreciate your use of things like agave.
What is the six food elimination diet?
Ginger
"Gluten Free in Georgia"
So glad you are finding inspiration, and not giving up!
These look great!
These look really great, Karina. And so does the crockpot curry you posted earlier. I too am thankful you are still posting your wonderful recipes.
Karina,
I am dealing with multiple food allergies as well. I am finding the
book Digestive Wellness by Lipski to
be very helpful in both my
understanding as well as some new
strategies to deal with them.
yum YUM! boy do those look like a perfect afternoon snack. esp with a nice cuppa green tea.
Hi Lisah - Thank you - for such wonderful support! Good luck with the elimination trial.
Hey Amy~ Wow - you *are* restricted. It gets easier, I'm learning, once you change old habits.
I haven't tried the flax seed thing yet; I have a hard time digesting flax. Hopefully, that will be improving over the next few months, because I've heard such good things about flax replacing eggs. :)
Heya Alex! Holey moley. Well, yeah. ;)
Hi Ginger! If no one answers your question, try googling the diet. I'm not familiar with the specifics. I am using more and more agave - so more agave recipes are coming. Thanks for stopping by!
Hola Slacker Mom! Thanks so much!
Hey Texas Vegan! I'm cooking more and more vegan these days and I love it. ;)
Hi Debbie - Thanks for the tip!
Yes, Vanessa - Tea and cookies. What's not to love about that?
Thanks, everyone for stopping by to comment.
xoxo
Karina
Post a Comment