Vegan Raspberry Crumble Bars

These Vegan Raspberry Crumble Bars are gluten-free, nut-free and easy to make with frozen raspberries and pantry staples. The biscuit base and crumble topping are made with buckwheat flour and oats. It’s a small batch recipe, making 8 bars, but you can double it if you like!

The sweet, tart raspberries work so well against the earthiness of the buckwheat flour and oats. I like to bake with buckwheat flour because it’s gluten-free and a bit more nutritious than regular flour. But if you don’t need the bars to be gluten-free, you could use plain all purpose flour instead.

When making traditional crumble bars with butter, you usually have to rub the cold butter and flour together to make the crumble mixture. I enjoy doing this, but it does take a bit of extra time.

The crumble mixture for these Vegan Raspberry Crumble Bars is a lot easier. All you have to do is mix the melted coconut oil and your preferred sweetener through the dry ingredients with a spoon.

How to make Vegan Raspberry Crumble Bars

Although the bars appear to have three layers, there are really only two components to prepare. First, we make the raspberry layer by simply heating the frozen raspberries in a saucepan to defrost them and reduce them down to a jam-like consistency.

I sweeten the raspberries with some rice malt syrup to keep the recipe low in fructose, but you can use maple syrup or honey of you prefer. If your raspberries are already quite sweet, you can leave out the sweetener or reduce it. Then I add some arrowroot flour, or corn starch, to help the mixture thicken.

Second is the crumble mixture, which is made by simply mixing the ingredients together in a bowl with a spoon. Two thirds of the crumble mixture is pressed firmly into the baking tin to make the biscuit base. Then the remaining third is crumbled on top after the raspberry layer has been added.

Ingredient for Vegan Raspberry Crumble Bars

Frozen raspberries: Frozen raspberries work well in this recipe since we reduce them down to a thick jam-like consistency. You’d never know they were frozen and it means you can make the bars all year round!

Rice malt syrup: I used rice malt syrup to sweeten the raspberries and crumble mixture, but maple syrup or honey would also work.

Arrowroot flour: You can use corn starch in place of arrowroot flour. It’s just there to help thicken up the raspberry layer.

Rolled oats: Old fashioned rolled oats work best in this recipe. Quick oats won’t give quite the same result since they are cut finer and rolled thinner to make them cook faster.

Buckwheat flour: You can buy buckwheat flour at most supermarkets these days. Buckwheat flour is generally considered to be a more wholesome alternative to all purpose white flour. However, if you don’t need the bars to be gluten-free, all purpose flour should work as a substitution.

Baking powder: Helps to make the base and crumble a little bit lighter in texture.

Sea salt: To bring out the flavours in the crumble mixture.

Coconut oil: Used in the crumble mixture to keep the recipe vegan. It also adds a subtle sweetness and hint of coconut flavour to the bars. If you don’t like coconut oil, you could use melted butter instead and perhaps increase the sweetener in the crumble mixture slightly as butter isn’t as naturally sweet as coconut oil.

If you’re looking for another way to use frozen raspberries, my Chocolate, Raspberry & Chia Slice is a triple layer, no-bake slice. It has been one of my most popular recipes since I first published it back in 2015!