Vegan Coconut Bars
Sometimes you just need a treat. A recipe with coconut and chocolate. After all, you've been so good. You've been munching fresh veggies and brown rice. You've been slurping healing soup with cabbage and drinking green tea. You've been diligent checking labels for gluten, casein, and soy. So it's time for something sweet. Something moist and chewy and perfect with a cup of tea.
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 keepers.
Vegan Coconut Bars Recipe
Chill before eating for best texture. or go the other route and zap in the microwave briefly to melt the chocolate chips. Life is short.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly 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 or sorghum flour
1/3 cup tapioca or potato 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:
2/3 cup organic brown sugar
1/4 cup organic unsweetened applesauce
2 1/2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla
1 tablespoon agave
1/4 cup light olive oil
1/4 cup warm vanilla hemp, coconut or rice milk, more as needed
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- sweetened or not
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 for storage.
These bars are moist and chewy, and are best eaten chilled. Hot from the oven they fall apart.
Makes 15 cookie bars.
11 comments:
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
I tried these tonight! Very good. My husband even took some to work and they got good reviews from his coworkers. I didn't have any coconut flour but I used my coffee grinder to finely chop the coconut-for other recipes I've been told this doesn't work well but for this it did thankfully! Thanks for the great recipe!
Linds- Good problem solving! I adjusted the applesauce to liquid ratio; if you play with it again, let me know what you think. Thanks!
Karina
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting at Karina's Kitchen. I value your feedback, stories and ideas.
If you require immediate help check my FAQ page.
For substitution help please see my detailed post Baking + Cooking Substitutions + Help.
xox
Karina