Spiced Gooseberry Oat Bars Recipe

Spiced Gooseberry Oat Bars Recipe

Adapted from Blueberry Oat Bars, Bryant’s Blueberries

1 ¾ old fashioned rolled oats
1 ½ cups flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free All Purpose Baking Flour in this batch)
¾ cup mascavo (muscovado) sugar (or brown sugar)
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¾ cup melted virgin coconut oil

2 cups thawed gooseberries
¾ cup raw sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch or arrow root
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with coconut oil. 

In a medium bowl combine the oats, flour, mascavo sugar, walnuts, baking soda and salt. Add the ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Pour in the melted coconut oil and stir to mix well. You should have a crumbly mixture that is wet enough to hold when pressed together. Reserve about ¾ cup of the mixture. 

Press the remaining oat mixture into the baking dish. Spread it evenly and press it firmly into the pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. 

In a sauce pan combine the gooseberries, and raw sugar (you can add more or less sugar to your taste). Bring to a boil, then simmer, for about 2 minutes. Stir to break up the berries. 

In a small dish, stir together the cornstarch, water, and lemon juice to make a paste. Add the paste to the gooseberries and stir until the fruit is thickened. Remove from heat.

Spread the fruit over the oat crust leaving just about a ¼ inch edge on all sides. Crumble the reserved topping evenly over the fruit. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the edges of the crust begin to brown. Cool the pan on a wire rack. 

Once cooled completely, cut into bars. Makes about 15 bars.