Blueberry Crumble Bars. Rey Lopez for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post Creating recipes for less-sugary baked goods has become a calling for me. I love to bite into a tender muffin, slice of banana bread or cookie with my afternoon tea, but I find most store-bought options and standard recipes overly sweet.
Sometimes I’ll use a popular recipe and simply cut back on the amount of sugar called for, but the substitution isn’t always that straightforward. Often, the formula needs to be reworked entirely to make a truly desirable, less-sweet baked good and, from what I can tell, there aren’t many reliable sources out there doing it. (Two who have tackled lower sugar baking exceptionally well are Brian Levy, author of “Good and Sweet,” and Jennifer Tyler Lee, author of “Half the Sugar, All the Love.
”) I am happy to step in to help fill this need, especially since it means I get to taste a lot of sweet (but not too-sweet) goodies. Sinking my teeth into one of these bars was an immediate reminder of the perks of the job. They bring all of the delight of a classic jam-filled, crumble-topped fruit bar, but in a more gently sweet way, with a nutty granola bar vibe.
This kind of bar typically has a shortbread-like base slathered with sugary jam, but these boast more fruit-forward layers, which allow the natural sweetness of whole fruit to take the lead, heightened with a small amount of maple syrup. The jam layer is made up simply .
