Cranberry Coconut Bars

One of my favorite things to do is veganize non-vegan recipes. These range from the elaborate (fried chicken - which I won't post about because it is ridiculously complicated and takes an entire day to make. But my meat-eating taste-testers have confirmed that it does in fact taste like fried chicken) to the simple (replace the cow milk with soy milk). Baking with non-vegan recipes falls somewhere in the middle. 

As I mentioned before, Aaron loves dried cranberries, as well as coconut. So when I couldn't find a good vegan recipe for cranberry coconut bars I chose to veganize this non-vegan recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.

Cranberry Coconut Bars (makes 16-24 bars)

1/4 cup vegan butter, softened

1/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbls. EnerG Egg Replacement Powder*

1/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup shredded coconut

*If egg replacement powder isn't your thing, omit it along with the 1/4 cup of warm water and use your preferred substitute for 2 eggs.

Soak the cranberries in warm water while you prepare the rest of the batter (not the 1/4 cup of water listed later in the ingredients list. Just put them in a bowl and cover with warm water). Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and applesauce together. It's cool if it mostly sticks to the beaters.

Then, beat in the sugars, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl, mix the egg replacement powder with the warm water and stir until fully combined. Add that along with the vanilla to the batter, and mix.

Gradually beat in the flour.

Drain the cranberries and add to the batter, along with the coconut. Stir and press into a pan of your choice. I used 9x12 for thinner bars, but use something smaller if you want thicker bars.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until just brown around the edges. Cool in pan before slicing.

No shame in tasting before photographing...