TASTE
Lime-bar tastiness with way less fat
| • | Prepping is key for a successful campfire cookout |
By Elaine Magee
Q. I bought lime bars at a bakery and would love a light version to make at home. I don't have the recipe, but it did have a crumb topping instead of meringue or powdered-sugar topping.
A. I found a recipe to start with on Allrecipes.com that should get us the bar you have in mind. The original recipe calls for 1 cup of butter; I used 3/4 cup less-fat margarine plus 2 tablespoons light cream cheese and 2 tablespoons fat-free half-and-half. I also used half whole-wheat flour and half Splenda in place of the sugar in the shortbread bar part.
A jar of lemon or lime curd can be used for the filling. The streusel topping is made from a sort of shortbread crust plus coconut and toasted pecans. These were easy to make because we weren't making the filling from scratch! Calories were trimmed by 27 percent, fat grams were almost cut in half, and saturated fat decreased from 3.5 grams to less than 1 gram!
To make half a batch, cut all the ingredients in half and use an 8-by-8-inch or a 9-by-9-inch baking dish.
Original recipe contains 120 calories, 6.2 grams fat, 3.5 grams saturated fat per bar.
LEMON LIME STREUSEL BARS
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with canola cooking spray.
Add margarine, cream cheese, and fat-free half-and-half to large mixing bowl, and beat on medium until smooth. Add the flours, sugar, Splenda and baking soda all at once to the bowl and beat on medium-low speed until the mixture forms coarse crumbs.
Pat 2/3 of the crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking pan. Bake crust for 10 minutes (no longer) and remove pan from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Spread lemon or lime curd over the baked crust. To the remaining 1/3 of the crumb mixture, stir in coconut and pecans with a fork. Sprinkle mixture evenly over the filling. Bake bars about 20 minutes (at 350 degrees) or until lightly browned. Makes 40 bars.
Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian. Learn more at www.recipedoctor.com.
