With all the beautiful seasonal apricots at the store I made up a batch of these Gluten Free Apricot Bars. These perfectly sweet and buttery bar cookies not only highlights seasonal apricots, but are made with super clean ingredients. Low calorie, gluten free, vegetarian and paleo friendly.
Good lord it was hot here this weekend. Smokin’ hot! How about you, was it hot where you were?
I crazy enough spent a lot of time outside. I went to Crossfit on Saturday and Sunday and both classes had me outside running. Let me just tell you this girl sweats… A LOT! Not pretty.
Then we spent a few hours at the pool on Sunday, but it was so hot if you weren’t in the pool you were dying. Literally you thought you were going to melt into a pile. So, we were happy to head into the air conditioning and cool it down.
Of course this heat caused about half of my tomatoes to ripen over night. Which of course meant I spent about an hour in the garden picking tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, while the hubs was still in the air conditioning, just saying. More sweating there too.
Are you getting my theme, I think it is safe to say last weekend was the weekend of sweat for me. Lots of showers, lots of laundry, and lots of tomatoes. Literally my counter is covered with the buggers.
I can’t think about dealing with them just yet, I think I will be giving as many away as I can. Need any tomatoes?
Yes, July is the month to harvest tons of delicious vegetables and fruits. This time of year the apricots, peaches, and plums are in season and just too gorgeous to pass up at the market.
I grabbed a big bag of apricots, I couldn’t help myself, and knew I wanted to do some baking. When I cooled off in the nice air conditioned house, I got to making these delectable bars. Let me tell you they are truly delectable!
WHY YOU WANT TO MAKE THESE GLUTEN FREE APRICOT BARS.
There is something wonderful about fruit bars. They usually have a cookie like crust, which these bars do. Made with nut flours, unsalted butter, coconut, walnuts and sweetened with pure maple syrup, gives these gluten free apricot bars a perfectly crisp, buttery base and topping.
You can use store bought apricot preserves in the recipe if you are short on time, but if you can, make your own. Making your own preserves is not difficult, it just takes a bit of time. If you have extra left over, store it covered in the refrigerator to enjoy on your morning toast.
Store any uneaten bars covered in the refrigerator for up to one week. If you are feeling generous share a few of these bars with friends, they will be so amazed at the flavor, and no one knows that there is no processed sugars or grains.
- [br][b]Bars:[/b]
- 3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
- 3/4 cup maple syrup or honey
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2/3 cup tapioca flour
- 6 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1-1/3 cups flaked unsweetened coconut
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Homemade Apricot preserves {recipe below} or 1 jar (10 to 12 ounces) apricot preserves
- [br][b]Apricot preserves:[/b]
- 8 medium apricots {1 lb}, cut in half and pitted
- 2/3 cup of coconut sugar
- 2 tablespoons of water
- Stir together sugar and water in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat. Once sugar melts and begins to simmer, lower heat and add 1/2 of the apricots.
- Cook for 30 minutes, stirring and smashing apricots as they soften.
- Add remaining apricots and cook an additional 30 minutes, stirring frequently, smashing apricots.. The mixture will thicken and you will have some chunks of apricots left.
- Let cool for 15 minutes. Use right away or cover and refrigerate. Store any extra in refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Line a 13 x 9” baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl stir together almond flour, tapioca flour, coconut flour, baking powder
- In a small bowl whisk together butter, maple syrup, and egg.
- Slowly pour butter mixture into flour mixture and stir until combined evenly.
- Add unsweetened coconut and walnuts to batter and gently stir to combine.
- Pour 2/3 of batter into pan.
- Pour preserve {1 1/2 cups} on top of batter.
- Using a spoon drop dollops of remaining batter over top of preserves.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove bars and set to cool completely on wire rack.
- Cut into bars.
- Store covered in refrigerator for up to 1 week.
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Ahhhh…apricots are so amazing right now. Love that these are gluten-free!
Thanks Justine.
I love this apricot recipe!
Thanks Meg.
Raising my hand for some of those tomatoes…and maybe a few of these bars, too!? I love fresh apricots, and this sounds like an amazing way to enjoy them.
Hey Heather, I wish I could send you a big old bag of tomatoes, and a few of these bars too!
Wow. I would a love a few of these bars today!
Thanks Stephanie.
Love the crumble! And the nuttiness 🙂
Thanks Maria.
That crumble is so amazing!! I love the flavor of apricot 🙂
Thanks Amanda.
These are pure magic – I LOVE apricot anything!
Thanks Jenn.
I’m not sure why I never bake with apricot! These bars look amazing!!!
They are very delicious Cathy. I always forget apricots too, but they are just as marvelous as peaches.
So excited that I’ve stumbled upon your blog! I love learning from people that share a love for clean eating! Also, thank you so much for sharing the calories and nutritional information for your recipes! I’ve been having such a hard time finding blogs/sites that actually do that!
Thank you Carson! So glad you are here, and I hope you enjoy the recipes. I like knowing the nutritional information when I am making a recipe, so I am happy to include it for my readers.
ohhhh yumm…i came looking for something to do with a large jar of apricots in light syrup….im wanting to poor off the syrup…but see you use some coconut sugar and apricot preserves which has a fair amount of sugars. so might just use it…i need to use whatever flours i have in the cupboard…i have switched from whole grain flours to lower carb, more paleo friendly,…but not sure how to bake with these yet.
A gooey apricot center is sandwiched between a shortbread bottom, and crumbly topping that is Grain-Free, Paleo, and Vegan.