Chocolate Cherry Oat Bars

There isn't much I can say about these bars except YUM! I bought a carton of cherries at the grocery store, but by the time I went to use them, most of them were soggy and not very good anymore. So, I wanted to find a use for the few cherries I had left. These bars were perfect! The cherries are only on the bottom layer, and they are like a little treat in each bite.

***Chocolate Cherry Oat Bars

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/2 cup pitted, diced cherries

1/4 (or less) sugar for sprinkling over cherries

1/2 cup sugar, for chocolate-oat batter

1/2 cup GF oats

1/3 cup oil, plus 1 1/2 Tbsp.

2 Tbsp. cocoa powder

1 egg

1 1/2 Tbsp. water

1 tsp. baking powder

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 8x8 baking dish. Cover bottom of baking dish with diced cherries. Sprinkle cherries with desire amount of sugar. In bowl, mix brown rice flour, 1/2 cup sugar, oats, cocoa powder, and baking powder, until combined. Slowly mix in oil, water and egg. Batter will be thick. Spoon chocolate-oat batter over cherries, using spoon to spread mixture evenly over cherries. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Bars are best after they have cooled down most or all of they way. They are a little crumbly, but I like it that way and didn't really want to add xanthan gum. If you'd like to make it stick together more, I'm sure you could add 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum.