Strawberry Bars with Coconut Sugar & Sourdough
Sometimes when I don’t have a strong idea about what I want to bake next, I ask my family and friends for requests. This request came from my husband who loves fruity breakfast bar type treats. I used coconut sugar in this recipe, which adds such a nice subtle sweetness and really lets the strawberries shine. You can use whatever type of berries you have on hand and it should work out just as well. Enjoy!
Ingredients
For the Crust and Topping
160 g all purpose flour
140 g coconut sugar
120 g rolled oats
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
170 g (1 and 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
60 g sourdough discard
For the Strawberry Filling
35 g coconut sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
15 g all purpose flour
300-400 g strawberries, fresh or frozen *I only had a 300 g bag of frozen strawberries but a little extra fruit would work as well if you have it
30 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter a 9x13 inch pan.
Whisk together the flour, coconut sugar, oats, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Using your fingers or a fork add the butter to the flour mixture and combine until crumbly. [Note: you can also use a food processor for this step - I just prefer to do it by hand.] Mix in the sourdough discard.
Reserve about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of this mixture for the topping and put the rest in the prepared pan. Push the crust mixture into an even layer in the pan. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
Make the strawberry filling by combining all of the ingredients together.
Once the crust is cool, top with the strawberry filling and then sprinkle the reserved crust mixture over the top. Bake for 35-45 minutes, rotating the pan at least once.
