Delicious Vegan Plum Cookie Bars

We had a dear friend coming to stay overnight and I wanted a quick easy dessert. I had home made plum jam (we had a bumper crop of plums this year) and cookie ingredients so I came up with this. If you would rather use another type of jam, I would think apricot or seedless raspberry would be good. Something with a little tartness to it. 

Our friend really liked them and we did too.

I used palm sugar which is low on the glycemic index, oats, pecans and almond meal making it high in protein and I used gluten free flour because I don't do well eating gluten.

Another plus being it takes less than 10 minutes to prepare.

1 cup gluten free flour
1/2 cup packed palm sugar ( can use brown sugar if you wish)
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup almond meal
3/4 cup quick cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup vegan butter softened
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease one 8 by 8 square pan.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, rolled oats, chopped pecans, almond meal. Rub in the vegan butter, using your hands or a pastry blender to form a crumbly mixture. Mix oil, vanilla and maple syrup, pour and mix well into the crumble.

Press 2 cups of mixture into the bottom of the pan and spread the jam on top. Leave a half inch space around the edge to give the jam room to spread. Sprinkle the rest of the mixture on top, pressing it lightly into the jam.
Bake for approx 35 minutes until lightly browned. Allow to cool and cut into squares.  

spread the jam evenly over the crumble

Press the rest of the crumble lightly on top of the jam

Bake until lightly browned