Strawberry-Oat Bars

I have a thing for oatmeal.  I also have a thing for gooey desserts.  And yet another thing for strawberries.

Naturally, the perfect storm of all these things would be an ooey gooey dessert bar involving oats and strawberries.  I'd been shopping at the Whole Foods in my old 'hood (it's a gazillion times bigger and more well-stocked than the Whole Foods in my new 'hood, which has the dubious distinction of being one of the smallest stores in the country while also being one of the busiest...ergo, the perpetual shitshow that plagues my local WF), and I stumbled across some Bob's Red Mill GF Oat Flour.

My mind, it went a reelin'.

I suddenly had approximately 8 bajillion ideas for what to do with said GF oat flour.  GF granola bars!  Fruity oat squares!  OMFG!

Happily, there was a recipe for raspberry oatmeal bars on the back of the packaging.  I modified it a bit and changed the raspberries to strawberries, and whipped up some strawberry oat bars for a friend's baby shower.

These are inspired by and based largely upon Bob's Red Mill Raspberry Oatmeal Bars, which was apparently adapted from 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes by Carol Fenster.  So, this is an adaptation of the adaptation.  (The original, I'm told, should be available at http://1000glutenfreerecipes.com/.)  My adaptation substitutes brown sugar for white sugar, omits the lemon zest, substitutes strawberry jam for raspberry jam, and incorporates fresh strawberries.

1/2 cup Earth Balance
2 teaspoons, divided, of vanilla extract
1 cup GF oats
1 cup GF oat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2/3 cup strawberry jam
2/3 cup fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

Step one: preheat oven to 375, Pam/grease the hell out of an 8x8 inch pan (or use parchment paper, which was my approach), and melt thy Earth Balance!

Step 2: Combine the melted earth balance with 1 teaspoon of the vanilla.  Stir in all the other ingredients except the jam and the berries.

I'm always tempted to hum "Hail to the Chief" whenever I bust out the Kitchen Aid.

Step 3: Mix together the jam and the berries (one could say that the ingredients, after being mixed together, are jammin'?  Bah, sorry, that was terrible.  I should warn you, dear reader, that I'm prone to making some truly heinous puns).  Stir in remaining teaspoon of vanilla.

Step 4:  Press the oat mixture firmly on the bottom of the pan.  Layer the berry-jam mixture on top, and bake for 25 minutes.  Cool the bars in a pan for 30 minutes before serving.  And by "serving," I mean "reveling in the ooey-gooey sweet deliciousness."