1. Prepare your crumb crust and topping. Line a 12.5 x 9.7 x 1-inch baking sheet with parchment paper (make sure the parchment paper lines the edges for easy removal and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Making the crust and topping

1. Mix oats, sugar, flour, tapioca starch, Chinese 5-spice, salt, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Mix in butter and vanilla with a fork making sure to cover every piece and break up into a crumbly mixture.
2. Press in about ⅔ of the crumb mixture evenly into the bottom of your pan using your hands and being sure that you press into all four corners.
3. Add the almond slices to the ⅓ remaining mixture and toss around until the almonds are distributed evenly. Set aside.

Make the Filling

1. Toss the berries, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Turn your burner to medium-high heat, at first it will seem dry. Start stirring continuously, as the liquid comes out from the berries bring everything to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to a simmer and allow the berries to cook down until tender and everything has thickened to almost a jam-like consistency – this should take about 10 minutes (possibly longer if frozen).

Construct the bars

1. Remove the saucepan from heat and CAREFULLY pour evenly over the crust, then spread out over the top of your crust.
2. Top the filling with the remaining crumb that you added the almonds to. Covering as best you can (think like a cobbler).
3. Bake the entire thing for 30 minutes or until the crumb topping is a nice golden brown in color and the filling is bubbling around the outer edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan, before cutting into squares. Or you could serve it warm with a scoop of ice cream (Fair warning cutting into squares and keeping it shape is harding when they are warm, but it is beyond amazing warm with some vanilla ice cream).

If cutting the bars

1. Once cooled, using the parchment paper lift the entire thing from the pan and place it on top of a cutting board. Cut into evenly sized bars. I cut into 16 bars, but cut them into any size you want.