Allergy-free Apple Oatmeal bars

YAYYY my own recipe!!! Still working on it, though; definitely room for improvement, but I think it’s pretty good. The crust is much like pulburon.

1/4 cup rolled oats
6 tbsp light brown sugar
1/4 cup amaranth flour
1/4 cup quinoa flour
3/4 cup wheat-free baking mix
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup chilled shortening
1/4 cup oil
2 cooking apples
1/4 cup almonds
1 tbsp granulated sugar
pinch of ground allspice
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of ground ginger
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 11 x 7 glass baking dish (or something around that same volume).

In a food processor, pulse rolled oats, brown sugar, flours, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda, just to mix. Add chilled shortening in dollops, and pour in the oil. Process for about a minute, then scrape down the sides, and process for another minute.

Scrape the mixture out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a mound with your hands. Wrap and place in the fridge until needed.

Peel the apples, cut in half side to side and then lengthwise. Cut out the core, and then slice into 1/8 inch slices. You’ll get a bunch of little “rainbows” as my sister calls them.

In the food processor (don’t bother washing it out first), pulse the almonds, sugar, allspice, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and pepper. How long and how many times you choose to pulse it depends on your preferences concerning the size of the almond pieces.

Bring the dough out of the fridge and divide in half. Press half the dough into the bottom of the dish with your fingers, and smooth the surface with your palms. Return remaining half of dough to the fridge. Arrange the apple slices over the dough; they will overlap. Pour/scrape the nut/spice mixture over the apples. With the remaining dough, make little patches with your palms and place on top of the apples. Reason being, the dough won’t hold together if you try to roll it out.

Bake for 30 minutes.

I think this could be a little sweeter, and perhaps I’ll also add more oatmeal next time, which will make it necessary to either increase the amount of oil or shortening. At any rate, it’s pretty good!