Lemon Goji Oat Bake with Date Glaze

As someone who is not a baker, I was pretty proud of this creation. Now, some people don’t like the texture of baked goods using oat flour as it can be dense or gummy. But I really like the texture of this. It turned out as a dense, muffin-like bake. I made it in a small baking dish, but you could make it as muffins. It works great for a snack, breakfast, or dessert.

The recipe was another creation that came out of random leftover ingredients that I needed to use up. So it is also really versatile and fool-proof. As I said, I am not a baker. I have never been a big fan of baking because you had to be so precise. But since beginning to eat whole food vegan, I love it because it is so forgiving. It doesn’t matter if you get the measurements a little off, the texture might just come out a little differently, but it will still taste great.

I think this has to do with our taste buds adjusting to the lower salt, oil, and sugar, so natural foods just taste better in general, so you don’t have to be too picky about getting the texture just right.

Plus you never have to worry about how long to cook because there are no eggs or other ingredients that must be prepared a certain way. So have fun and swap out different ingredients. Play around until you find the taste and texture you like!

Also, check out these other whole food vegan sweet treats!

Lemon Goji Oat Bake with Date Glaze

Course: Breakfast, Snacks, DessertCuisine: Vegan, Oil-freeDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4-6

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Ingredients

• Dry Ingredients

• 2 cups rolled oats, blended into flour (measured before blending)

• ¾ cups additional rolled oats, left whole

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ¼ cup date powder*

• 2 tablespoons chia seeds*

• 1 tablespoon lemon zest

• ½ cup dried goji berries*

• Wet Ingredients

• ¾ cups lemon juice (about 5 lemons)

• 2 ripe bananas

• 1 tablespoon almond butter*

• 2 tablespoons powdered almond butter, plus 4 tablespoons water

• Glaze

• 5 dates

• ½ cup soy milk

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Place 2 cups of rolled oats in a food processor and grind into a coarse flour texture. Add the oat flour to a large mixing bowl with the other ¾ cups whole rolled oats and the remaining dry ingredients. Set aside.
• Add wet ingredients to the same food processor. No need to rinse out any remaining oat flour. Process until the mixture is smooth and then add to the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.
• Stir everything until just combined and the pour into a 9 inch square glass baking dish. No need to grease the dish. If you’re worried about sticking, you can use a silicone dish or add parchment paper, but it is not necessary. Very little sticks to the pan, and what does will clean off easily after a quick soak in hot water.
• Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. It will be golden on the edges and will be firm to the touch in the middle.
• While it is baking, blend the dates and soy milk until smooth. If you have a high-powered blender no need to soak the dates, but if using a standard blender, soak the dates in the soy milk for about 20 minutes before blending.
• Pour as much of the date glaze as you like on individual servings and enjoy.
• Store in the fridge for up to 4 days. Eat leftovers cold or reheated.

Notes

• Date powder or sugar does use the whole dates, so I consider it a whole food, but if you want a less processed item, you can use blended up dates or date paste.
• You could also use flax seed instead of chia, but either is totally optional. Normally they act as a binder, but this cake will turn out fine with or without them. There is enough binding with the oat flour alone.
• Feel free to use other dried fruit instead of goji berries, or substitute with fresh or frozen berries of any kind.
• You can use more or less real almond butter or almond butter powder depending on your goals. Using the powder will significantly cut back on the fat content.