I’m currently occu-PIED

Yes, I'm one of those who serve vanilla custard sauce with crumble pie and not crumble pie with vanilla custard sauce. I have grown up with these crumble pies, my mom making various for me and my sister since we were just kids, and a big spoon (read: many spoons) is a must to serve with crumble pie right? I was inspired by these nostalgic memories and created some fantastic berry crumble pie bars the other day. 

I was in charge for the "fika" (desserts) yesterday for an event and that was the reason I wanted to serve something festive and relatively simple in a long pan but which tastes really good too. As a result I have these wonderful crumble pie bars. They are delicious and I can't wait to make these this summer with fresh handpicked berries from the Swedish forests and then... obviously serve with lots of vanilla custard sauce!

Is it totally sugar free?

Yes, it is for sure! I am using stevia in this recipe and you can use optional kind of sweetening. If you choose to use stevia as sweetening in this recipe, it makes the recipe also suitable for diabetics. Except this, the recipe is completely vegan.

What berries should I pick?

In this recipe I have used raspberries but you can use whatever berries you'd like - in general. I recommend you to pick forest fruits though like blueberries, red wineberries, black wineberries, raspberries and possibly strawberries. These are typical Swedish berries and they work fantastic together.

How do I serve it?

You serve it either warm ot cold, preferably with vegan vanilla custard sauce or vegan vanilla ice cream. It's delicious, it's fantastic and it's something you need in your life. The crumble bars are great by themselves too, but as I said in the beginning of this post - I'm one of those who serve vanilla custard sauce with crumble pie and not the other way around.

Can I freeze it?

One of the best things about this recipe is that you can freeze these crumble pie bars. Have them stored in an airtight container so you can take them out from the freezer whenever you want to enjoy these. Perfect to have done since before if you are having guests coming over.

Raspberry Crumble Pie Bars 

a smaller pan

INGREDIENTS:

150 g fresh or frozen raspberries or other forest fruits/berries

1 tbsp lemon juice 

a pinch of real vanilla

0.5 dl (0.2) stevia or sweetening

Possibly 1 tbsp corn starch*

100 g soft vegan butter

1 dl (0.4 cups) stevia or sweetening

2,5 dl (1 cup) oats

3/4 dl (0.3 cups) plain wheat flour

a pinch of salt 

HOW TO MAKE:

• Place your berries in a small sauce pan together with the lemon juice, vanilla and stevia. Heat and let the berries start melting. Stir occasionally until it becomes a thick sauce with berries left. Be careful we don't want the berries to be mashed completely, it's nice to have some bites left. Let it cool.*

*If your berry sauce is too watery, mix out corn starch with a little bit of water and add to the sauce pan. Stir until the sauce thickens. Let it cool.

• Heat oven to 220 degrees C.

• Place your soft butter in a bowl with the sweetening. Mix together. Stir in all remaining ingredients thoroughly so that there aren't any thick butter lumps left.

• Press out half ot the batter into a pan, approx 15x15 cm. Spread out a layer of the berry sauce. Top with the remaining crumble mixture and press it down a little bit.

• Bake in the oven for approx 20' or until golden.

• Serve as it is or preferably with vanilla custard sauce or vanilla ice cream.