One of the first gifts my wife gave to me was a cookbook she made of some of her favorite vegan recipes. She made everything look uniform, had it printed on card stock, spiral bound, and made collage cover that she had laminated. It was one of the nicest things anyone has ever given me. I’m not saying that was the point I knew I wanted to marry her, but it didn’t hurt.
One of the recipes in the book my wife flagged as one of her favorites was for pecan raspberry bars. The recipe originated in a cookbook from a certain large butter company. I won’t say who, just that they must be based in a land with a lot of lakes. Anyway, it was a recipe she had loved before going vegan and only required minimal changes to veganize. It was the kind of thing I would make only make once in a while, but every time I would remember how good it was and say that I should make it more often. Once my wife was diagnosed with celiac, we stopped making it.
My wife wanted me to revisit this recipe now that I’m doing this website and since my skills at making recipes gluten free have gotten stronger. So I decided on the flours I wanted to use, made a pan and immediately felt like something was off. They were just a little too oily before and after baking. So I searched online for the recipe to see if the version I had was different, and sure enough, the recipe had been slightly tweaked since my wife made the cookbook for me. Slightly more flour, slightly less jam. I made them again and it was immediately clear they were better. But I think they are better with more jam. So I’ll leave that up to you and make a note in the recipe.
The only notes I have on the process of making this is that it’s important spread the jam evenly, but keep about a 1/2″ gap between the jam and the pan. Otherwise, the jam burns to the pan and makes it difficult to get these out of the pan.
When you reserve some of the dough (about 1.5 cups), you want to break it up into small pieces and crumble it into small pieces and spread it all over the top. This gives the top the look it gets (bumpy and with little puddles of jam that bubble up) and also helps it bake.
The easiest way to tell when this is done is by color. The top will be a very light golden brown and the edges will be a darker golden brown. If the edges start to get too dark and it’s already been 40-45 minutes, take it out! If the edges get too dark, they will get really hard and crunchy. A little too much in my opinion, but do what’s right for you.
So there you go. Simple with a delicious combination of flavors and with a really nice crumb. What’s better than that?
Gluten Free Pecan Raspberry Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup -1 tbsp sorghum flour 126 grams
- 1/2 cup +1.5 tbsp white rice flour 95 grams
- 3/4 cup +2 tbsp tapioca starch 95 grams
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup non-dairy butter, softened
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water)
- 3/4-1 cup raspberry jam 10 oz jar = 1 cup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine all ingredients except jam. Mix until completely combined. Reserve 1.5 cups of dough.
- In a lightly greased 8×8 or 9×9 pan, press the remaining dough into the bottom until it evenly fills out the pan all the way to the edges. Spread the jam (3/4 of cup if you like it lite, 1 cup if you like more) evenly on the dough, leaving an approximate 1/2″ gap around the edge.
- Crumble the reserved dough all over the top. Bake for 40-45 minutes until top is a light golden brown and the edges are a darker golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into or removing from pan.
