So funny story:
I stumbled upon a Whole Foods Raspberry crumble bar earlier this week.
Zach and I LOVE these bars. We’ve gotten them many times and the fact that I got one for free at work made me VERY excited for dessert that night.
One problem: Zach would want to share. I did NOT want to share.
I felt VERY guilty (really I did…) but the second I got home I admitted to Zach that I, in fact, had gotten a raspberry crumble bar, but that I wasn’t going to share.
Zach knows me….I think he was just impressed that I didn’t just eat it at work and never say a word about it!
Well. . . I’ve felt guilty ever since and decided that to pay back my wonderful fiance. I would bake him us an entire batch of Raspberry Crumble Bars…double win because I can healthify them! 🙂 And healthify them I did! I cut down half the butter I was seeing in every recipe by using applesauce made my own raspberry filling with half sugar, and substituted whole wheat flour. Just a few changes can really boost up the health value of bake goods. Sure, you can tell my baked goods are healthy, but I actually LIKE the healthier versions more. More satisfying. Anyway…
Were you guys guessing this might have been on my mind by the couple of hints I dropped this week?
Healthy Raspberry Crumble Bars
Ingredients
- 1 stick (or 1/2 a cup) of room temperature butter
- 1 cup of applesauce
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 + cup of all purpose flour
- 1 + cup of whole wheat flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of good granola ( I used Whole Foods Cinnamon Pecan Granola)
- 10-12 oz of good raspberry jam
Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 and butter/spray an 8 X 8 pan.
- Mix together the butter, applesauce and sugar in a large bowl until it becomes completely mixed together
- Sift together the flour and salt in a separate bowl until distributed together evenly
- Begin adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly until everything comes together as a ball of dough.
- Take about 2/3 of the dough and roll it out into the 8 by 8 pan. It should create about a 1/4 inch layer of dough.
- Spread 10-12 ounces of good raspberry jam on top of the dough
- Add about 3/4 of the granola to the remaining dough and mix together with your hands.
- Spread and/or crumble the remaining dough on top of the raspberry jam.
- Sprinkle the remaining granola on top of the dough
- Bake for about 50 minutes or until evenly browned.
- Let cool and enjoy! 🙂
These are going to be PERFECT on Gus’s birthday hike this morning with some fresh squeezed juice!
Disclaimer: I made my own jam for this recipe, but didn’t share because honestly it was done very haphazerdly and with whatever we had around the house. It included a small container of raspberries from the farmers market, about 2/3 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar boiled on the stove top. If you want a great recipe, I loosely followed this recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-thornton/raspberry-crumble-bars-recipe/index.html and just tweeked it for what I had. I have about 2/3 cup left over after using it for the bars).
Enjoy!
Oh my heavens I am so making these this week! And you could most likely use any kind of fruit yeah? My mom has a ton of blackberries that are ready! 🙂
Oh yeah — Zach and I are doing blueberries next! Please let me know how they work out, I love them!
Oh blueberries would be good! Okay I will 🙂
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