Vegan forest fruit crumble cookie bars recipe
With their buttery pastry base, juicy, fruity layer and gorgeously golden crumble topping, these cookie bars might just be the perfect portable sweet treat or dessert. Ideal for popping into lunchboxes, munching on mid-afternoon or even packaging up in tissue paper and ribbon as a gift, they're also vegan and easy to prepare.
This recipe is just one of many brilliant dishes from The Great British Bake Off: Comfort Bakes, a cookbook that, as the name suggests, is all about hearty, homely food – think crumbly, butterscotch shortbread biscuits, salted caramel self-saucing puddings and savoury crumpets.
With this bake in particular, Paul Hollywood, Prue Leith and the 2024 bakers have really outdone themselves – the end result is nothing short of a showstopping triumph that only requires 30 minutes prep. What are you waiting for?
Ingredients
- 350 g plain flour
- 220 g cold vegan butter, cubed
- 150 g ground almonds
- 120 g icing sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp cold water
- 500 g frozen forest fruits, defrosted and drained in a sieve or colander
- 60 g caster sugar
- 1 lemon, juice and finely grated zest
- 1 tsp cornflour
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Baking
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 30 mins
- Cooking Time: 50 mins
- Serves: 10
- Suitable For: Vegan
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F/gas mark 5. Line a 25 x 20 cm (10 x 8 in) baking tin with baking paper (baking parchment), then grease with butter.
- Put all the ingredients for the pastry dough, apart from the cold water, in a food processor and pulse. Gradually add the water until the mixture forms fine breadcrumbs.
- Set aside just under half of the pastry crumbs for the crumble topping and tip the remainder into the lined baking tin. Press down in an even layer, covering the base.
- Prick the base all over with a fork and bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until light golden brown. Leave to cool for 10 minutes.
- While the pastry base is cooling, toss the forest fruits, sugar, lemon juice and zest and cornflour (cornstarch) together. Spread the berry mixture evenly over the cooled pastry base.
- Scatter over the reserved pastry crumbs and return the tin to the oven for a further 30 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling and the crumble topping is golden brown. Leave to cool completely before cutting into 10 equal-sized bars.
Recipe adapted from The Great British Bake Off: Comfort Bakes: The official 2024 Great British Bake Off book by The Bake Off Team (published by Sphere). Image courtesy of Ant Duncan.
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