Hello lovelies! I’ve been MIA lately. Life has gotten in the way but I certainly have NOT forgotten about you 🙂

I have a fun little treat to share with you today! This recipe morphed from a magic cookie bar into what I am calling a chocolate covered strawberry bar – sounds fancy, and tastes divine…and that’s a winning combo, right?

Most everything I am baking these days seems to involve chocolate and be in bar form, I must really be into the square shape this summer…I will have to analyze what that means later (haha). No matter what shape these are, they are heavenly, decadent and deeeeelicious! The base is a crumbly shortbread and the topping is dark chocolate with a gooey strawberry filling…and it’s all topped off with one of my favorite ingredients — coconut 🙂

You can always substitute your favorite fruit preserve to change the flavor but strawberry is what I had on hand and it worked beautifully. The shredded coconut on top can be omitted, but I find it adds nice visual appeal and helps absorbs a bit of the preserves below. If you do choose to omit the coconut, consider adding 1 to 2 more ounces of chopped chocolate for good measure and coverage 🙂

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Bars (Vegan) 

Ingredients

For crust:
1 1/4 cups almond flour
4 Tbsp coconut palm sugar, powdered (or any granulated sugar)
1/8 tsp sea salt
4 Tbsp coconut oil, melted (butter or ghee can be subbed)
splash of pure vanilla extract

For Topping:
2/3 cup fruit-sweetened strawberry preserves
2 ounces of your favorite dark chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or line with parchment paper a 8×8 pan or large loaf pan (this is what I used) and set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour through salt). Stir in coconut oil and vanilla until mixture comes holds together when pressed. If not coming together, add a touch more of oil (will depend on what flours are used, I used flours from Nuts.com).
3. Press mixture evenly into prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.
4. Remove from oven and let cool for 1-2 minutes. While crust is still warm, spread preserves over crust then sprinkle with chopped chocolate and coconut.
5. Let cool for 15 minute and then refrigerate until hardened, about 1 hour. Cut into bars and enjoy!