This recipe for vegan raspberry streusel bars is based on one by Brittany at Real Sustenance. Ever since she posted her delicious looking recipe last year during the holidays I’ve been wanting to make it.
I adjusted her recipe by removing the sweetener from the crust and by increasing the amount of high protein items in the streusel so the topping would be a bit less sweet as well. I hope you like these gluten free dessert bars as much as we did.
Raspberry Streusel Bars
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 cups blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- ¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon water
Filling:
- 1 cup raspberry jam
Topping
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ¼ cup blanched almond flour (not almond meal)
- 2 tablespoons xylitol
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 1 cup walnuts, chopped
- ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Instructions
- Pulse together almond flour, salt, coconut oil, vanilla, and water in a food processor until dough forms a ball
- Press dough into an 8 x 8 inch baking dish
- Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes
- Pulse oil, almond flour, xylitol and salt together in food processor until creamy
- Briefly pulse in walnuts and coconut, so they are left coarse, not pulverized
- Set streusel aside
- Spread raspberry fruit spread over warm crust
- Sprinkle streusel topping over raspberry fruit spread
- Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes
- Cool for 10 minutes, then refrigerate for 2 hours to set up
- Serve
Recently I was fortunate enough to meet a wonderful couple, Pepi Gramshammer and his lovely wife Sheika. Pepi is one of the founders of Vail –“Pepi’s Face” is a run on the mountain; Sheika, his awesome wife, is the genius behind many of their business ventures. They are the quintessential close knit hardworking European couple.
In any event, Sheika asked me what I had done earlier that day, and I told her that I had spent the afternoon making streusel. She had no clue what I was talking about which I thought was funny since she is from Austria and German is her native language. Finally, I got my point across through various descriptions and she said, “Oh! STREUSEL!” Rolling her “r’s” in that wonderful way that only she can.
Whatever your accent, I hope you enjoy these vegan Raspberry Streusel Bars!
Holly Fugleberg says
This recipie is one of my new all time favorites! I used fresh raspberries and reduced them over meduim heat to use instead of the raspberry jam for the filling, and instead of the xylitol, I used 10 drops of vanilla stevia. They turned out wonderful! I plugged the recipie into a nutrition calculator, and (for a 16 serving pan) came up with 165 calories per bar with 3.7 grams of protein! Thank you Elana for your healthy and yummy ideas!
Jolie Herman says
This was absolutely scrumptious. I omitted the xylitol from the topping and it was plenty sweet. Substituted homemade plum jam for raspberry. Topped a few pieces with fresh whipped cream. Everything about it tastes devilishly good like it is bad. Elana – you did it again! Numnumnum!!!
Laura says
YUM! These were so easy and delicious. They were a big hit at both a potluck and my office.
I used stevia with a little brown rice syrup instead of xylitol. I also used Earth Balance instead of coconut oil. I used a mix of nut flours that I had on hand — almond with hazelnut — and it turned out great.
Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
PrimalGrandma says
Well, these certainly looked absolutely wonderful. However, we found (for my family’s taste) that there was too much salt – I’m guessing it was the salt in the topping. (I noticed someone else made mention of the salt as well in another post.) Also, there didn’t seem to be enough raspberry filling. Obviously the more filling, the more sugar per serving so that would certainly be a consideration.
Also, they needed to bake a little longer — we are a a higher elevation (over 5200′ elevation) so that may be a consideration – not sure, but just thought I’d mention it. I had to bake the crust longer and ended up baking the struesel longer as well – obvioulsy ovens vary so that may have been the problem. Also everyone seemed to think that the topping was lacking “something” – maybe some cinnamon or ?? Didn’t have any problem with the sweeteners as I used stevia.
Just thought I’d mention what I observed while making this recipe. Will definitely try it again – great idea! thank you!
Gwen says
I made these, they are great. Very easy to make. I used current jam. It took longer to cool and set up. I’d leave the salt out next time, but that is just me, I’m not used to salt.
Thanks for posting this recipe.
Heather says
These were delicious! I ate one for dessert last night and one for breakfast this morning :)
DameselfyDiary says
By the way Elana, thanks for using xylitol in this recipe. I often use 1/2 xylitol and 1/2 sugar in recipes to cut back on the sugar.
Sunny says
I just made these in Norway :) Yum I used zero sweeteners. I made the bottom as directed. For the sugar free filling I cooked down 1 C. raspberries, 1 C. blueberries and 1 very finely chopped medium apple into a compote. I stirred in 1 tsp of vanilla at the end. For the streusal I left out the xylitol and used a mixture of pecans, hazelnuts and walnuts + 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Deadly.
Holly Fugleberg says
This sounds good! Do you peel the apple before chopping it up? Does the chopped up apple get reduced with the blueberries and raspberries on the stove, or do you add the chopped apple to the mix after the berries have been reduced?
Sunny says
Hi :) I peeled the apple, diced it very fine and cooked it down with the raspberries/blueberries. Overall my bars were not ‘sweet’ as a traditional ‘bar’ but that’s how I like them. If I wanted them a little sweeter I would have aded a Tbsp of maple syrup or honey to the compote and/or crust :)
p.s I made them one more time and used half almond flour and half almond meal in the crust and the bottom turned out even better than the first round.
Bev Robinson says
Since I can’t have nuts, can you substitute another kind of flour? My daughter showed me you site and love your recipes. She made me a birthday cake from your recipes and it was wonderful!
Heather J says
I’m not sure if this will work but you can sometimes substitute ground sunflower seeds for almond flour. Just grind them in a food processor to the same consistency as almond flour.
claudia says
In this recipe, finely ground sesame seeds might just work. We used almond meal, not the flour, and it worked well. I often use almond meal for cookie-like recipes. A coarser texture works well in cookies and bars. Good luck and have fun experimenting!
last minute antalya says
I`ve tried this recipe and i`m really impressed, it has a very good taste. My both child tried it and they like it a lot. Thanks a lot for sharing.