Lavender & Lemon Quinoa Bars

Ok, food blogging is just so neat!

I love the reciprocal recipe factor:  The Lavender & Lemon Pound Cake I created (based on this recipe) became these Lavender, Lemon and Honey Soft Oat Bars  over at one of my most favourite blogs: Food Blog and the Dog.  So of course, I had to see if I could make them gluten-free and vegan.

Success!

And thus, they became Lavender & Lemon Quinoa Bars.  And I love them so.

My original plan was to take them traveling as airplane snacks, but they never made it that far.  But I can tell you they work excellently well as tea-time treats. Or breakfast. Or both.

Lavender & Lemon Quinoa Bars

Inspired by Lavender, Lemon and Honey Soft Oat Bars

Wet Ingredients
8g (1 Tbsp.) ground flax seed + 1/4c. boiling water
59 mL (1/4 c.) applesauce
100 mL ( c.) maple syrup
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp. vanilla paste or extract

Dry Ingredients
75g quinoa flour
60g quinoa flakes
50g almonds, chopped
2g (2 tsp.) dried organic lavender buds
8g (1 Tbsp.) ground flax seed
zest of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line a 20 x 20cm (8×8″) baking pan with parchment paper.

Pour the boiling water over 8g (1 Tbsp.) of the flax seeds, stir to combine, and let sit for 10-15 minutes to gel.

In the meantime, combine wet ingredients in a medium bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.

Once the flax seed/water mixture has cooled, incorporate it into the wet ingredients.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and stir well with a spatula to combine.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.  Bake at 350F for 12 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.  Remove the bars from the pan (still on the parchment), and let cool completely on the wire rack before slicing.

I like to slice them into mini bite-sized morsels, into about 2.5cm (1″) squares.

They’d be great as larger bars too.  Enjoy!