Vegan coconut fingers

Today I tried my mother’s slice recipe, also called raspberry coconut slice in other recipe books, using substitutes. She always used apricot jam, as she made her own and that made sense. I have two open jars of jam, one pineapple and one fig, so I used both, but on separate halves.

Ingredients:

• 90g (3oz) Nuttelex butter
• 90g (3 oz) sugar ( I used raw)
• 1/4 cup apple sauce
• 120g SR flour
• 90g plain flour

Topping:

• jam (approx. 3/4 of a cup)
• 120g desiccated coconut
• 120g castor sugar
• 1/4 cup apple sauce

Method

Put oven on at 180C (375F). Sift flour and salt, rub in butter with fingertips until mixture is like breadcrumbs. Add sugar and mix with apple sauce. Knead and press into a greased baking dish 30cmx20cm. I have never had a mixture I could knead, so I just press it into the baking dish as evenly as I can. ( Today I forgot to grease the dish and had no trouble getting the slice out).

Cover with a thin layer of jam, about 0.5cm thick, but up to 1 cm. Mix the topping well and sprinkle evenly over the top, using a fork to gently spread it and then to rake lines in it, pressing down slightly for a firm crust.

Bake until golden, about 30 mins. Let it cool slightly before marking your cuts and cool completely before cutting all the way through. I get 30 slices by doing 6 rows and 5 columns, each slice being approx. 3cm x 4cm ( 1.25 ins x 1.5 ins)

The slice has turned out a little drier than when using egg, but barely noticeable. Flax egg might be interesting – let me know if you try it, or any other modifications.

Enjoy!