On Tuesday, I baked the Rye Blueberry Bars from King Arthur that were one of their July Bake of the Week. I made some changes that I do not think affected the outcome in that I replaced the AP flour with white whole wheat and the 10 Tbs. of butter with 1/3 cup avocado oil plus 2 Tbs. water. I cut the vanilla in the crust from 2 tsp. to 1 tsp, and I did not use cardamom in the crust and topping.
I think that the filling is a problem. I'm not sure why it uses maple syrup, as I could not really taste it. At first, I deleted the salt, but I added ¼ tsp. after tasting it. I also ended up adding the stated amount of vanilla, in part because the filling was rather blah. I stirred in ½ tsp. allspice, and that helped.
The recipe called for making a slurry with 3 Tbs. cornstarch and 2 Tbs. lemon juice. That did not work well. It was not enough liquid to combine with the cornstarch, and I should have added more lemon. Instead, I added it to the jam mixture, and I had to break up or fish out, clumps of cornstarch. I think that I will use Clear Jel next time or use enough lemon juice to combine thoroughly. I might try lime juice next time as well. There will be a next time, if they hold up over the next couple of days, as my husband likes them, and I think they have promise.
I wonder, however, if the recipe developer at King Arthur was trying hard to offset the blah filling by adding all that vanilla and cardamom. The other thought is that they were trying to feature as many products that they sell as possible.
My other baking project on Tuesday was Squash, Whole Wheat, and Oat Quick Bread, a recipe that I adapted from Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker. I baked it as four small loaves in the 4-loaf Bundt pan I have.
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