This is a great recipe with some alterations; otherwise I think it would be quite bland. For the crust, I used 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup light brown sugar, 2 cups AP flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, and 1/2 cup oats, and 1 cup of butter instead of shortening. I increased the salt to 1/2 teaspoon and the cinnamon to 1 tsp. I added the zest of one small lemon and the juice of half of it, plus 1/2 tsp. each of vanilla and almond extract, directly into the egg. I used frozen blueberries straight out of the freezer and added an additional 1 TBSP of cornstarch to the 3 tsp. in the recipe. I also added 1 cup of chopped, toasted pecans to the topping (mixed in). I think next time I might omit the oats and replace it with an equal amount (1/2 cup) of additional whole wheat flour. Also, I might omit the pecans. I'm not sure either of those things improved the texture. Also, something kind of strange happened with this recipe: After I let the dish cool and cut the bars, I thought the filling tasted bland and wasn't sweet enough. But after the bars sat for a couple days, they seemed to become much sweeter--almost too sweet. Strange. So I might cut the sugar just a tad next time.

Reviewed On: Oct. 11, 2009

This is an easy, versatile recipe that I will make again. I used 1 cup of blueberries, 2 cups of nectarines and 2 cups of yellow plums, so I had 1 cup over the recommended amount, but I think this was OK. My only complaints are that it was slightly too tart and a bit underdone just underneath the top part of the batter. So, there are several things I would change next time: 1) Use a shallower pan (I think the 8x8 pan I used was too deep to allow it to cook properly all the way through); 2) Stick a toothpick as far down as possible to check doneness (I pulled mine out at 40 minutes but it still wasn't totally done underneath); and 3) If you have ANY fruit that is the slightest bit tart, add more sugar. In my case it was just my 1 cup of blueberries that was tart; I thought the very sweet nectarines and plums I had would have made up for the tart blueberries, but they didn't.

Reviewed On: Oct. 5, 2008