Vegan Baking!

It saddens me to say that this is my last weekend of summer. I start school on Tuesday and it's a little bittersweet. As much as I love summer and being able to do nothing all day, I am excited to go back and see all my friends that I didn't get to see over the summer. Anyway, in celebration of the last weekend of summer, my cross country team had it's annual team sleepover and the following night I hosted my own bonfire/campout. Obviously I had to make something for the both of them! 

Vegan Berry Crumble Bars

I made these delicious mixed berry crumble bars, and yes I did bake vegan! These were a lot of fun to make, and so easy too! One of my good friends on my team is a vegan and I always feel so bad because she can never have any of the desserts that others bring to our team parties. So i decided I would take on the challenge of baking vegan, and well she (and many others) loved these! 

Vegan Berry Crumble Bars

adapted from Smitten Kitten

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)

1/2 a banana, mashed 

1/4 tsp salt 

zest and juice of lemon

4 cups berries (fresh or frozen) 

1/2 cup sugar

4 tsp cornstarch 

Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9X13 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, combine sugar, baking soda, flour, lemon zest and salt. Using a fork or pastry cutting, blend in butter and mashed banana (the dough will be crumbly). Pat half of the dough into the pan.

In another bowl, mix 4 tsp cornstarch, sugar and the lemon juice. Mix in berries gently. For mine, I ending up kinda of 'mashing' the frozen berries so they were less chunky, but you don't have to. Sprinkle over crust and crumble the remaining dough over the top. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is slightly golden. Allow to cool before cutting.