Cranberry Blissful Bars

Click here to watch a video of this recipe.

Introduction

The transition to going gluten-free is all about giving things up. At least that’s how it seems. In reality when Josie puts her mind to creating a gluten-free alternative she’s almost always successful. As someone who happily eats everything I can honestly say most of it is as good as the glutenous alternative. In the case of the Blissful Bars it’s even better. This tasty cake came about because of our daughter Paige. Her favourite Starbucks treat was a Cranberry Bliss Bar, an icing covered square of flour, cranberries and white chocolate chips. Cursed with food allergies like her mom, Paige eventually gave up gluten, which meant no more bliss bars. Knowing how much Paige was going to miss them, Josie set out to crack the code on a gluten-free version. It took a few attempts, but eventually she created the Cranberry Blissful Bars, so called because it’s gluten- and lactose-free and is low in sugar. You could almost call them healthy. Yet, they taste like dessert. No giving anything up here. What’s more blissful than that? 

Ingredients

1 cup coconut cream (without the liquid)

1 cup Xylitol (or any granulated sugar)

2 eggs

1 T vanilla

2 cups fine almond meal

1 T baking powder

1 t Xanthan gum

½ t ground ginger

½ t salt

zest of 1 lemon (orange works, too)

½ cup white chocolate chips (or ¼ cup cocoa butter to keep it low glycemic)

¾ cup cranberries

Directions

  1. Put a can of coconut cream in the freezer for ten minutes. Drain any liquid. You only want solids from the top.

  2. Preheat oven to 350F. Use convection bake if you have it.

  3. Mix coconut cream, xylitol, eggs, and vanilla until creamy.

  4. Add almond meal, baking powder, Xanthan gum, ginger, salt, zest, cranberries and white chocolate chips.

  5. Use a spatula to scrape the batter into a flan pan (or pie pan if you don’t have one).

  6. Bake for 40 minutes. It should be golden in colour, spongy in consistency and spring back to the touch. If it’s not all three return it to the oven, covering with a sheet of tin foil so it doesn’t brown.  

  7. You can eat it just like this or smear with lactose-free cream cheese icing, more white chocolate chips and cranberries.