Raspberry Crumble Bars

Yesterday, I discovered that we had some ripe red currants as well as some ripe black raspberries in our yard. It was such a thrill to fill a bowl from our own patch!

Now that the kids are all home from school for the summer, the kitchen looked like Grand Central as dinner prep began. Tasha worked on emptying and reloading the dishwasher. Leenie chopped a large head of cabbage for the Oriental Cilantro Slaw from The Complete Vegetarian Kitchen by Lorna Sass. Ameleii was the ingredients guy. Now that he can read he's quite good at getting what you need for a particular recipe. Kyle was busy putting away ingredients that I no longer needed.

There was a hum about the kitchen as everyone worked, sometimes grudgingly, together. Then again, it may just have been the rumbling of our stomachs. Not all of my kids like to cook but its a skill that will serve them well as they get older. I include them, whether they want to be included or not.

As the meal began to fall into place, everyone's thoughts kept returning to the fresh berries. What were we going to do with them? There wasn't really enough to let everyone just eat some. Of course that was largely due to the fact that everyone had been eating them. I wanted to make some kind of a tart but wasn't really sure where to begin so I began pulling recipe books out.

Inspiration finally came from Cooking with PETA. Using the recipe for Raspberry Crumble Bars as a guide, I concocted this delicious dessert which reminded everyone of the Raspberry Linzer Tarts we used to get at a local farmer's market before going vegan.

This recipe is still a work in progress. The results are crumbly and don't maintain a bar shape. You might want to add a little more liquid to hold it all together better, I plan to. For anyone interested in recipes with little sugar, this is not the one. I think you could easily decrease the sugar without destroying the recipe. I plan to try using half the amount of sugar next time.

Katie's Version of Raspberry Crumble Bars
Combine the following with a whisk or fork:
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs flaxseed meal whisked into 2 Tbs of water

In a seperate bowl combine:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 Tbs baking powder
1 1/3 cups shredded coconut

Add dry ingredients to wet. Press 2/3 of the mixture into a greased 8 x 8 pan. Place black rapsberries and red currants on top of this mixture. We used about 2 cups of the berries. Use a fork to crumble the remaining dough on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.