Vegan Apple-Filled Oatmeal Cookie Bars

I posted my original version of this, Apple-Filled Oatmeal Cookie Bars with a Gluten Free Option, back in November. It is now Spring. (Well, actually, today is Summer. The beginning of this week was fall. Last week was winter. Tomorrow we are back to Spring. Then next week looks like we are back to Fall. Weather in Virginia!) I have been busy putting in my garden, rehearsing for the Virginia Renaissance Faire, and testing recipes on the Faire’s cast. (Quite an onerous job for the cast, I know, but nobody seems to mind. (“HOW many cookies did he eat??????”)) So before I forget, time to post the Vegan version.

THE INSIDE SCOOP

Measurng Up to Standards.

When both volumetric and weight measures are provided, the volumetric measures should be considered approximations. The standard measure for a cup of sugar is 192 grams. By volume, this measure will typically be less than 1 cup. When baking, it is always best to use a food scale to measure dry ingredients so one achieves consistent results every time a recipe is repeated.

Love is Caramel

If you can find a jar of Vegan Salted Caramel Sauce that you love or if you are in a hurry, feel free to substitute that for making your own vegan caramel sauce. However, it is very easy and inexpensive to make caramel sauce. And personally, I think home-made caramel sauce tastes better than the commercial kinds.

Vegan Caramel Sauce uses coconut cream. I have tried coconut milk and coconut cream products from a variety of manufacturers and always come back to the Thai brand. The Thai brand uses only 3 ingredients, smells good (some brands smelled AWFUL!), and tastes yummy. To begin, chill the can(s) of Thai Coconut Cream so that the coconut fat and coconut water separate. Skim the coconut cream fat off the coconut water, being careful to get as little of the coconut water as possible. If desired, place the coconut water in a sealable container, label, and refrigerate or freeze for other uses.

Vegan caramel sauce also uses vegan butter. Sadly, I have yet to find a vegan butter that I like, so I made the vegan salted caramel sauce without vegan butter and again with vegan butter. The vegan caramel without the butter was BLAND. But the vegan butter gave the vegan caramel sauce a bit of a “kick.”

Place the organic cane sugar and vegan butter in a medium saucepan. Cook over low/medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar melts. This may take 15 minutes.

Once the sugar and vegan butter are melted, clip a candy thermometer to the pan and boil until the temperature reaches 250 degrees. DO NOT STIR! At this point, stirring will cause the sugar to crystallize. If there is no candy thermometer, boil 4-5 minutes or more, until a small stream of sauce, when dropped onto an ice cube, firms up to a soft thread.

Remove the saucepan from heat. Add the coconut cream, stirring until completely incorporated. (Careful! Caramel sauce may splatter!) Return the saucepan to the heat; stir constantly until sugar melts again.

Remove the saucepan from the heat; add the vanilla and butter flavors.

Cool for 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently. This is very important before progressing to the next step, to avoid cracking the jar.

Place a glass jar in an ice-water bath. (To make an ice water bath, fill a bowl with equal parts ice and water. Do not get any water into the glass jar.) Pour the slightly cooled caramel sauce into the jar. Cool completely before refrigerating. If the caramel is refrigerated while still warm, water condensation will form and dilute your caramel.

A DRIED APPLE A DAY MAKES WONDERFUL BAKED GOODS.

The filling for these cookies bars is made with unsulphured, dehydrated apples. I prefer to make dried apples myself by drying fresh apples in a dehydrator. Typically, this is much less expensive than buying packaged dried apples because I have an apple tree. Plus, you can make extra for snacking and other recipes, such as Gluten-Free Appalachian Apple Stack Cake. Sadly, this year the squirrels stole ALL of my apples, so I had to buy them. However, if making your own dehydrated apples is impractical or impossible, look for packages of dried apples with an ingredient list of ONLY dried, unsulphured apples. These are often labeled “organic.” Do not use dried apples that list sugar, sunflower oil, or any other ingredient in the ingredient list. (As an aside: One time I bought a package of dried apples that included sunflower oil in the ingredient list. I opened the package- the smell was so bad, I threw the whole package away.)

Dried apple slices or apple rings are cooked with the other filling ingredients in a covered saucepan on low heat until the apples have softened and have absorbed most of the apple cider or apple juice. (This is why it is important to use DRIED apple slices.) This can take 30-60 minutes. I use only 2 cups of apple cider to cook the apples. After the filling is cooked, place the filling in a food processor and pulse until the filling is blended, but visible chunks of apple remain.

At this point, the apple filling may appear fairly dry because it has absorbed all of the apple cider. If so, add up to an additional 1 cup of apple cider, 1/4 cup at a time, until the filling is moist, but not runny. If you prefer to use apple juice, you will want to add no more than 1/2 cup of juice to the cooked filling. The apple filling should be slightly warm when the cookie bars are assembled so that some of the flavor of the apple filling soaks into the cookie layers.

COOKIE BARS, ASSEMBLE!

Once the filling is ready, the cookie bars are very easy to assemble and bake. So rather than boor you with telling you here the same things that are stated in the directions, I will simply show you the pictures as it is assembled and baked, and let you get on to baking!

Print Recipe

Vegan Apple-Filled Oatmeal Cookie Bars

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By Connie Teunis – Serves: 9

A delicious VEGAN oatmeal cookie bar with an oatmeal cookie base that is topped with an apple filling, pecans, vegan caramel sauce, and another layer of vegan oatmeal cookie. Incredibly rich and impossible to resist!

Ingredients

• Vegan Caramel Sauce:
• 192 g./ 1 c. Organic Cane Sugar
• 43 g./ 3 T. Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Sticks or other vegan butter
• 110 g./ ½ c. That Full-Fat Coconut Cream
• 1 t. Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 t. Imitation Butter Flavor
• ½ t. Sea Salt
• Apple Filling:
• 4-5 ounces Dried, Unsulfured Apples
• 128 g./ 2/3 c. Organic Cane Sugar
• 1 t. Cinnamon
• 1 t. Ground Nutmeg
• 1 t. Ground Ginger
• ½ t. Ground Cloves
• 2 c. Apple Cider (preferable) or Apple Juice, plus up to 1 cup additional cider or juice
• Cookie Bars:
• 96 g./ ½ c. Butter-Favored All-Vegetable Shortening, melted, cooled slightly
• 144 g./ ¾ c. Organic Cane Sugar
• 150 g./ 1 ¼ c. All-Purpose Flour
• 100 g./ 1 ¼ c. Quick Cooking Oats (NOT instant)
• 1 t. Cinnamon
• ¾ t. Baking Soda
• ¼ t. Salt
• 15 g./ 1 T. Molasses
• ½ c. Vegan Caramel Sauce
• 60 g./ ½ c. Chopped Walnuts or Chopped Pecans

Instructions

1

For the Vegan Caramel Sauce:

2

Chill the can(s) of Thai Coconut Cream so that the coconut fat and coconut water separate.

3

Skim the coconut cream fat off the coconut water, being careful to get as little of the coconut water as possible; set aside. If desired, place the coconut water in a sealable container, label, and refrigerate or freeze for other uses.

4

Place the organic cane sugar and vegan butter in a medium saucepan. Cook over low/medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar melts. This may take 15 minutes.

5

Once the sugar and vegan butter are melted, clip a candy thermometer to the pan and boil, WITHOUT STIRRING, until the temperature reaches 250 degrees. If there is no candy thermometer, boil 3-4 minutes or more until a small stream of sauce, when dropped onto an ice cube, firms up to a soft thread.

6

Remove the saucepan from heat. Add the coconut cream, stirring until completely incorporated. (Careful! Caramel sauce may splatter!)

7

Return saucepan to heat; stir constantly until sugar melts again.

8

Remove from heat; add vanilla and butter flavor.

9

Cool for 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently.

10

Place a glass jar in an ice-water bath. Pour the slightly cooled caramel sauce into the jar. Cool completely before refrigerating.

11

For the Apple Filling:

12

Place all filling ingredients, except the extra 1 cup cider, in a medium saucepan. On medium heat, bring to a slow simmer; reduce heat to low and let cook until apples are soft but not mushy, and most of the cider or juice has been absorbed. This may take 30-60 minutes. Cool slightly.

13

Place the cooked apple filling in a food processor, working in batches if necessary. Pulse for a few seconds to chop the apples. Chunks of apple should be visible.

14

Add the reserved cider or juice, up to one cup, to the apple filling if the filling appears dry. (If using apple juice, add no more than ½ cup of juice.) Set aside.

15

For the Cookie Bars:

16

Place an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have an ungreased 8” x 8” glass pan ready.

17

In a medium bowl, whisk together the organic cane sugar, all-purpose flour, oats, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

18

Combine the melted vegan shortening and molasses; add to the flour and oat mix, and fold together until there are no dry ingredients.

19

Place ½ (approximately 270 g.) of the cookie batter into the bottom of an ungreased 8”x8” glass pan. Use the back of a spoon to press the cookie crumbs down slightly.

20

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

21

Remove from oven. Gently spread the apple filling over the cookie base. Top with the chopped nuts. Drizzle caramel sauce over this. Top with the remaining cookie batter, pressing gently into the caramel/apple filling.

22

Return to the oven and bake an additional 30 minutes, until the topping is just beginning to brown around the edges. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Cool 10 minutes, then run the flat side of a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cookie bars from the pan.

23

Cool completely.

24

ENJOY!

Notes

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