I’m sharing SPLENDA® Sweetener Products in my life as part of a sponsored series for Socialstars™ #SplendaSweeties #SweetSwaps
It’s been a jam packed summer with small road trips, barbecue parties, and short vacations. I just got back from a two-week vacation spent in Wisconsin visiting friends and family. It was a good break to get out of the city during the dog days of summer. I loved spending time at our summer cottage but couldn’t wait to get home and back in the kitchen.
On Friday I got back to New Orleans and had plans to head to the grocery store the following morning. Saturday started out pretty overcast with a lot of rain. Sometime during the afternoon, the rain picked up and within 25 minutes the city flooded.
The day earlier Matt and I had discussed our evacuation plans in the event that a hurricane hits the city this year. We just moved to a new house and while it’s only 5 minutes away from our previous location, it has a history of flooding during big hurricanes such as Katrina.
Our suburb got hit pretty hard over the weekend with water covering the tops of the cars. Flood water crept up the steps and rose to three feet where it sat for nearly 14 hours! After being stuck in the house with nowhere to go without a kayak and rising flood water, we decided we had just better settle in for the evening and prepare food in case of a power outage. These oatmeal bars were the first thing to come to mind, especially since they don’t need refrigeration. They function as a quick snack, breakfast bar or sweet dessert for the evenings.
Luckily, our house is built up and this test of a storm gave us a good indication of what to expect during the real deal. It honestly happened so fast and it wasn’t something I was excepting from a thunderstorm. It has been an incredibly rainy summer here and this storm really devastated a city already trying to recover from reoccurring storms the past few months.
All week I had the biggest urge to make oatmeal jam bars and knew I wanted to make them with less added sugar when I got back into town. While I had plans to make my own fig and strawberry jam, I had to make due with what I had on hand. Of course, if you want to make your own jam, that would work perfectly with this recipe.
Baking with SPLENDA® Naturals Sugar & Stevia Sweetener Blend is pretty straight forward and rewarding. This particular sugar blend comes in granules that are comparable in size to granulated sugar. While the granules remain the same size, only half of the amount of this sugar blend is needed to achieve the same sweetness as desired with traditional sugar.
What I love about this product is that it’s a natural sweetener made with no artificial or genetically engineered ingredients. In fact, only sugar and stevia leaf extract are listed as ingredients.
Each two-pound bag comes with a conversion chart and tips on how to appropriately use the product. What I love most about this product is the taste. I’ve already swapped out sugar and have started to use SPLENDA® Naturals Sugar & Stevia Sweetener Blend in iced tea, cakes, muffins, sweet bread, and sauces. No one would ever know these bars are made with less added sugar.
Over the past few months, I’ve shared recipes that incorporate SPLENDA® Naturals and Sweetener Products. These recipes are a great way to use less added sugar while baking in the kitchen.
What are some of your favorite #SPLENDASweeties and #SweetSwaps summer treats to make?
Strawberry Fig Oatmeal Jam Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
- 1/2 cup SPLENDA® Naturals Sugar & Stevia Sweetener Blend
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional
- 3 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 12 ounces fig preservative (jam)
- 5 ounces strawberry jam
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 9 pan with butter; set aside. In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, SPLENDA® Naturals Sugar & Stevia Sweetener Blend, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and chopped pecans and whisk well.Slice cold butter into little pieces and add to bowl.Use a pastry blender to blend in the butter OR using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, turn on low and allow mixture to crumb together. Don't over mix the batter, you want the mixture to be crumbly. Spread just enough mixture on the bottom (about 2 cups) to cover it and gently press it in. In a small bowl mix fig and strawberry jam to combine.Evenly spread jam mixture onto crust.Press remaining oat topping over the jam. Bake in oven for 50 minutes or until golden brown. Top will slightly harden while cooling.Allow to cool then slice and serve.
Nutritional information is only an estimate and it's accuracy is not guaranteed to be exact.
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7 Responses
These are very useful for lunch box for the kids,thanks
You had me at fig! Wow these look good!
These look lovely, I love using figs in my cooking 🙂
I looooove figs! These bars look like the perfect healthy dessert. Love that they are low in sugar. I can’t wait to bake a batch this weekend. yum!
Mmmm. I love fig bars and grew up eating them greedily! I love that you added strawberries to them. What a lovely combo and I can’t wait to try them.
Can you substitute that nasty ass/toxic spelnda/stevia crap for regular sugar?
Hi Jason, the Splenda mixture contains pure cane sugar and stevia (an organic plant) which is non-toxic. However, yes regular sugar can be used. Use 1 cup and add 2 extra tablespoons of butter to the mixture.