Description
These healthy vegan lemon bars are a combo of buttery sweet shortbread crust and creamy lemony filling.
Ingredients
Scale
Shortbread Crust
- 2 cups Rolled oats
- 1 cup Almond flour
- 4 tbsp Coconut sugar
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- ⅓ cup Tahini
- ¼ cup Cashew milk
Creamy Lemon Filling
- 1 ½ cups Cashews
- ½ cup Coconut cream, scraped from top of the can
- ½ cup Cashew milk
- ½ cup Lemon juice
- ⅓ cup Honey ((sub with date syrup or maple syrup))
- 3 tbsp Arrowroot starch
- 2 tbsp Lemon zest ((about 3 lemons worth))
- ½ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Turmeric, for color ((optional) )
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a square 8×8 inch baking pan with parchment paper. Make sure the handles of the parchment paper are over the pan so you can easily lift out the bars. Linking the pan I used here.
- Add the cashew into a bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside and let soak for 10 minutes.
- Add the oats to a blender and blend into a fine flour. Add the oat flour into a large mixing bowl, along with the almond flour, coconut sugar, salt and baking powder. Whisk to combine.
- Pour in the tahini and cashew milk and mix using a flexible rubber spatula. I actually like to use my hands to mix the crust once it forms a loose ball as it's just easier. Press the crust into the prepared pan, using the back of a measuring cup to pack down the crust into the pan. Bake the crust in the oven for 15 minutes, until it just starts to brown.
- While the crust bakes, make the filling. Drain the cashew and rinse with warm water. Add the drained cashews into a blender (I used my Vitamix) along with the coconut cream, cashew milk, lemon juice, honey, arrowroot starch, lemon zest, salt and turmeric. Turn the blender on low, slowly ramping the speed up to high. Le the filling blend for 2-3 minutes until silky smooth.
- At this point the crust should be done baking. Pour the filling onto the crust and spread out into an even layer. I like to jiggle the pan back and forth to even out the filling and pop any air bubbles. Additionally, I use wooden clips to clip the parchment paper to the pan so it doesn't fall into the filling.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the filling looks 'set' in the center of the bars. Once the 20 minutes are up, turn the oven off and crack open the oven door. Let the lemon bars sit in the oven until the oven temp inside is room temperature. Then place the bars into the fridge, covered in plastic wrap, to cool completely.
- The following day, cut the bars into 16 even squares and enjoy
Notes
I store these bars in a glass tupperware in the fridge for about one week.