How to Make The Best Raw Apricot Slice

Share the Simple Love!

This Raw Vegan Apricot Slice is free from refined sugar, flour, eggs and dairy. It is simply made from low-cost ingredients. And it is super delicious, with bursts of sunshiny flavour in every bite!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe:

• It’s cheap to make: I like my treats recipes to be budget friendly, and this raw vegan apricot slice is no exception. Made from simple, cheap ingredients, this is a treat that you can enjoy without the splurge.
• It’s healthy: no refined sugar or carbohydrates went into the making of this delicious slice. It’s dairy free, and egg free, and full of complex carbohydrates that aren’t so damaging to your blood sugar.
• Kids love it: They love the bright colour of the thick apricot icing, and the sweet tangy flavour. I often use this as a bargaining tool to get them to finish their dinner. Gotta love those healthy treats!

Ingredients in the Raw Vegan Apricot Slice

This Raw Apricot slice is made from really cheap ingredients that you can get from the baking aisle of your supermarket. I’m all about being healthy on a budget. Having unrefined food does not have to be expensive if you are prepared to make it yourself!

For the Base:

• Desiccated Coconut – Desiccated Coconut is the main binding agent in this no-bake base. This slice has no dairy, eggs, or nuts, but the desiccated coconut works beautifully to set the base. Grind the desiccated coconut into butter to minimise the cost. Or, if your budget allows, you could simply buy coconut butter (although, I never do this since I can make it myself so inexpensively). I love how coconut is naturally a bit sweeter
• Ground Oats – oats bulk out the base and help it to have a more biscuity texture. It’s a fine art, though! Add too much, and the base will be too crumbly and chalky. Add too little, and the base will set like concrete and won’t eat very nicely with the creamy apricot topping.
• Dried Apricots – soak the dried apricots for 10 minutes before adding (strained of water) to the base mixture. Otherwise, they will be too hard and will not blend correctly! You want them to blend to a smooth paste. Although, little pops of apricot are not going to be completely unpleasant (the very opposite, in fact!)
• Lemon Juice – lemon juice really elevates the flavour of this base and makes it sing in your mouth. It definitely does not over power the apricot flavour, indeed, it enhances it.
• Sweetener – just a little bit of Truvia is necessary to deepen the flavour of the base and make it truly delectable.
• Salt – don’t leave this out! A little bit is needed to really bring that flavour home.

For the Topping:

• Desiccated Coconut – again, the desiccated coconut is ground into a butter for the apricot topping. Coconut butter sets like rock when chilled, and it is what gives this topping that buttercream-like consistency. You could buy the coconut butter and use that. If you do, use about 2/3 cup of coconut butter.
• Tinned Apricots – I prefer to use tinned apricots in juice, since they contain little unrefined sugar. However, if apricots-in-syrup is all you have, then go for it. Heck, it may even taste better (dare I admit it).

The Super Simple Raw Apricot Slice Method

Honestly, this method is so easy, you will be making this slice every day! All you need is a decent food processor for the coconut and dried apricots, and you will be away laughing!

Make the Apricot and Coconut Base

First, line a 30 by 20 cm baking tin with baking paper. Make sure you leave enough baking paper on all sides so you can lift the slice out once it is set.

Empty the dried apricots into your food processor and cover with boiling water. Let them steep for ten minutes, then drain the water off. The apricots should blend nicely now.

Next, prepare you coconut butter and oat flour. Measure oat the oats, and grind them into a flour. Now you can grind the coconut into butter. This should take a couple of minutes. I normally use the coffee grinder attachment of my food processor, which works a charm.

Transfer the coconut to a food processor, with the remaining base ingredients. Blend until well combined. You may need to get your hands in if your food processor is starting to sputter with the weight of the crumb.

Press the no bake biscuit base into the lined tin and pop in the refrigerator to harden. It should firm up straight away. Leave it in there while you make the topping.

Make the Apricot Topping

This is the simplest two-ingredient topping to make. As with all slices, the topping is the piece de resistance. It is what makes the slice truly shine. And this apricot topping, my friends, is the business!

Pour the contents of the tinned apricots into a saucepan. Over a medium heat, simmer the apricots until the syrup reduces to about half the original volume. This heating process helps the syrup to set later on.

Blitz the desiccated coconut into butter (or use bought coconut butter if you have that on hand). Add this to the reduced apricots. Don’t worry about the apricots being too warm – this is actually preferable, as it keeps the coconut butter soft, so it mixes better.

Use a stick blender to get the topping nice and smooth. Pile on top of the chilled apricot coconut base, and return to the fridge to set.

Because of the coconut, the frosting firms up almost instantly, but it cuts best after a couple of hours chill time.

This Raw Apricot Slice keeps really well in the fridge and stays good for about four days.

Things to Note about this Raw Apricot Slice:

• The size of the tray you use will determine how many squares of slice you get and how thick it is. There is no hard and fast rule, but obviously, if you want a thicker base, then use a smaller dish.
• The setting time will increase only a little bit, because thanks to the coconut, both layers will set really well, regardless of how thickly you spread it.
• To reiterate, I make my own coconut butter by blending desiccated coconut, because it is one thousand times cheaper that way. I love coconut butter, so I don’t mind blending it myself if it means I can have it! If you have the budget to buy coconut butter, just use about 2/3 cup for the base, and 2/3 cup for the frosting.
• This Raw Apricot Slice is yummy for a light dessert, morning or afternoon tea, or even as a little summin’ summin’ after lunch. It’s so fresh and light, you can enjoy it any time of the day!