Have you tweaked one of my recipes?
My friend Polly suggested to me that we should have a discussion about tweaking the recipes that I've posted, and I think this is a great idea.
She suggested I put out the top five recipes and ask for your tweaks on those.
Sooo, I'll put out a few suggestions, BUT if you've tweaked another one of my posted recipes, feel free to share that too.
Brinderaded Chicken
This is a super simple recipe for a quick brine/marinade to use with chicken. If you have problems with dry, flavorless chicken, you really, really should give this one a try!
Polly's got some tweaks to share for this one; she uses 2x the garlic, oven-bakes the chicken, and serves it with pasta and red sauce or alfredo.
Lots of Clusters Granola
This is hands-down my favorite granola recipe ever.
You just mix the ingredients up, press them into a pan, and bake it as one whole piece. None of that pesky stirring-during-baking stuff!
And then after baking, you can easily break it up into chunks, as fine or coarse as you like.
I know for sure multiple readers have tweaked this one, varying the amount and type of sweeteners, adding various nuts and fruits, and so on.
Chipotle Chicken Kebabs
This recipe includes a quick, spicy-sweet marinade, and a creamy cilantro-lime dipping sauce.
I sometimes make this as-is, and we dip the chicken into the sauce as a main dish.
But I also really like to use the chicken in a green salad, with the cilantro-lime dipping sauce as a dressing.
And when I make chicken burrito bowls, this is the chicken I turn to.
My most recent tweak to this recipe has been subbing chicken thighs for chicken breasts; I like having the flexibility to use whatever I happen to have on hand.
Orzo with Sausage and Asparagus
This pasta-veggie-meat dish makes a great one-pot dinner. My main tweak to this one is that I use a variety of vegetables in it, like broccoli, peppers, asparagus, and kale.
I've also sometimes used spicy sausage or added some jarred spicy peppers.
Make-Ahead Chicken Enchiladas with Red Sauce
These chicken enchiladas have been one of the most popular main dish recipes I've posted; I know lots of readers have them in their regular rotation.
I haven't personally done much tweaking of this one, so I'm curious to hear if you all have.
Share your tweaks!
Have you:
- changed an ingredient or two?
- switched up a baking/cooking method?
- figured out a make-ahead/freeze-ahead variation?
- come up with a new way to use part of a dish?
Or done any other tweaking/changing?
You can answer for any recipe I've ever posted, not just the five I listed here. 🙂
P.S. I'm gonna also suggest my whole wheat sandwich bread, since I know many readers have tweaked this one over the years!
I've made my spin on the granola recipe so many times that I just eyeball it! I like to add ginger bread spices and molasses to it. My kids love it!! And I also add flax and chia seeds instead of nuts 🙂
Also as a side note, I make gingerbread cookies every year and I once read a comment that said most gingerbread recipes are better if you double the spices... And they are right!!
So my eyeballed gingerbread granola recipe is adding about a tablespoon of molasses, a heaping tablespoon each of cinnamon and ginger, probably less than a teaspoon of ground cardamom and ground allspice. A heavy hand with the salt. And I'd I'm feeling adventurous, a few dashes of cayenne.
@Elinor, the gingerbread granola ideas sounds delicious!
I have a dear friend who is both gluten and dairy intolerant, so I have made crustless pumpkin pie using coconut milk and gluten free flour. I've done it more than once, and have always been happy with the outcome.
@CarolineRSA, my son has recently gone dairy free. I have tried the Califa brand heavy cream and it made the best biscuits. But then I used the Califa brand half and half in a sausage gravy breakfast casserole. It turned out great but all I can taste is coconut! I haven't had that problem with regular coconut milk or the heavy cream, but I had to pour out the half and half. It makes me queasy just to think of it!
@Sabrina, try cashew milk instead! It’s easy to make at home, just soak raw cashews, overnight, drain, add fresh water, and blend in a blender.
Because of the fiber, the milk will thicken as you cook it, making it an excellent stand-in for dairy cream or half-and-half in creamy sauces (don’t add any additional thickener like flour or cornstarch, and have water on hand in case it thickens more than you were expecting!).
@Liz, I agree that cashew cream is a great substitute. You can make cashew cream more quickly if you pour boiling water over the cashews. Then they only need to sit for 30 minutes before you drain, add fresh water and blend.
@Liz, or, if you have to, be even quicker and just rinse the cashews and blend them. Likely the better your blender the smoother they'll be, but it still works without soaking. I've done it for years and honestly had never heard of soaking them until I read it right here. Shari, below, cuts it to 30 minutes to soak, but if you're really in a hurry just rinse them well n go for it. I'm sure that soaking it for however long probably helps it be smoother ... if that's extremely important to you. I always blend with as little water as possible for two reasons; 1) I figure a nice 'long' blend with less water can help them be more smooth, and 2) I can always, and do, add more water both in the blender and as they cook to get the texture I want at the moment. (I also always rinse my blender with a quick blend and add that water to them as well.)
I usually just add a touch of Braggs Aminos and use it for gravy on potatoes. If you don't use it all up ... it's great the next time ... just add more water and heat it up!
Interested in tweaks to the granola since mine often seems not to cluster / clump as nicely as yours!
@Jessica, the key is PRESSURE! And not cooking it too long.
I put a sheet of parchment paper on top of the granola, then press down firmly with an identical cookie sheet, so it gets squashed evenly.
If you cook it a little too long, it can get quite brittle and break apart, so try cooking it a minute or two less next time if that happens!
I am never one to tweak recipes because I end up ruining them by doing so. I tend to follow the directions.
@Maureen, Ha. I am the complete opposite. I can't remember a recipe I have ever followed exactly. And when I do try to mostly follow a recipe, I tend to do something completely boneheaded, like leaving out an ingredient entirely.
@Maureen, I'm the same. I follow a recipe to the T!
When baking my favorite tweaks are usually substituting ingredients.
For example, any time a recipe calls for oil, I always substitute it with light extra-virgin olive oil. Also, whenever it calls for brown sugar, I substitute it with maple sugar or honey.
I LOVE the brinerade recipe and use it a ton in the summer. I've done it as written, but often I squirt some Italian dressing into the mixture just to add a little variety of flavors. I usually grill it then, and eat it as-is, cut up on a salad, in pesto, Alfredo, make chicken salad with it, or even into chicken pot pie. It is a great multi purpose item!
I've also made the granola many times. The only tweak I've tried is substituting one teaspoon of maple extract in for one tsp vanilla. I tried all maple with no vanilla, and I can't say I would recommend that. But I enjoyed when it was part maple, part vanilla.
The other recipes you mentioned will go on my to-try list!
I have two tweaks to the brinerade recipe. One, grate the garlic on a microplaner so it gets more evenly blended into the marinade...and maybe add an extra clove or three. Two, add 1-2 teaspoons of dijon mustard...makes for a nice kick.
I tweak recipes all the time...I have more recipes I have changed than I have left alone at this point. One of our family favs is grilled black bean burritos from a loooooong ago Family Circle recipe. (Oh, how I miss you Family Circle.) I added a smear of cream cheese to the tortilla and amped the sliced avocado to full on guacamole. YUM.
Ok, somehow I missed the news that Family Circle is no more!
I love the brineraded chicken, it's so versatile and I tend to use it way more than any marinade! The only tweak I use is adding a few shakes of worcestershire sauce. Other than that, depending on what I plan to use the chicken for, I may add different herbs/spices. At this point I just eyeball the ingredients.
This chicken spent a lot of time on the grill over the summer this year!
I haven't really tweaked the chicken enchiladas but I cook the chicken separately by baking or poaching. I don't know why, but putting raw chicken into the sauce somehow bugs me. (I once bit into a deli sandwich with a chicken breast that was mostly raw. That was probably 25 years ago and I still shudder.) Oh, I use much, much more chipotle chilis in the sauce and don't usually put avocado on top.
I've made all the others except the granola--I don't like granola much--without tweaks. At least, best as I can remember. I usually wing all my meals with spices and I always put in extra garlic.
@Rose, I agree. I use rotisserie chicken.
There are a lot of recipes I come across that I know are not written correctly and need to be modified! 🙂 it's frustrating to make a recipe and have it not turn out so I'm glad to have a lot of experience cooking and know what's not right. Yesterday I pulled up a sirloin chip recipe that said to only cook the steak for 10 minutes in my instapot. I knew that wasn't right and I would have ended up with a raw pot roast so I cooked it for 50 minutes and it was perfect. I would say the biggest change I make to most things is spicing it up to make my family happy.
@Kathy,
I find this, too, Kathy, often with cooking times, as you mentioned. However, I once saw a cupcake recipe that was fabulous - fresh grated apple, nuts, homemade caramel sauce over the streusel topping... I decided to make it. I was well into it - caramel sauce made, streusel topping made, batter coming along, when I realized the author had left out any mention of adding liquid in the batter. It was like stirring Play Doh. I added milk a bit at a time to get to a normal batter consistency, but good heavens, if one is actually publishing a recipe, at least double-check it. I can't imagine that the cupcakes were supposed to not require any. Those would have been some dense cupcakes.
@JD, very dense! LOL but it sounds like a delicious recipe otherwise:-)
I always follow the recipe the first time I make it, if I like enough to make it a second time I make my own adjustments. And I usually forget to write them down, so I have to make it again...hoping it will turn out the same way.
I’ve made a few of your recipes, can’t remember all of them at the moment. But I tend to leave out ingredients we don’t like or make substitutions with ingredients I have on hand in most recipes. Last month I tried your Egg Bread. I only have two loaf pans so made rolls with the leftover dough. We really liked the bread, moist and was still great after freezing. The dough made into rolls we didn’t like as much. The were good but were different in texture. Next time I’m trying a cake pan for a round loaf.
Your crustless pumpkin pie has become one of my go-to recipes for company. That said, I do double the amount of spices used. My husband is a self-confessed pumpkin slut (his words), so more pumpkin spice is always better! 😛
Chicken enchiladas:
I almost always use leftovers from a roasted chicken! I make a spatchcocked chicken on Sunday, then use the leftovers for enchiladas or tacos later in the week.
I’ve also used ground beef.
And my most-favorite hack of that recipe: freeze the chipotles in adobo individually on waxed paper, then store in a jar to pull out as needed. They’re so much easier and less messy to chop when frozen (the salt keeps them from freezing rock hard, so they’re still easy to mince).
@Liz, I just dump the whole jar of chipotle in my handychopper and pulverize them. Then whatever's left can go into one of the little jars of minced garlic, and frozen, and forgotten about.
@Rose, yes, the jar of Forgotten Good Intentions exists in my freezer also.
Our family LOVES your Korean Sizzling Beef Lettuce Wrap. It is such a quick and satisfying meal. My tweak is that my kids and husband really love the meal over rice. The kids usually skip the lettuce, and my husband and I do both. Makes the meal go further, too!
I make your granola bars (not regular granola) every week, and with my tweaks, we use in place of energy bars when on-the-go. I sub 100% whole wheat flour for AP flour, use old-fashioned oats instead of quick, add flax and coconut (and occasionally chia seeds), and sometimes sub other nuts like chopped almonds for the walnuts. Also add nutmeg & ginger in addition to the cinnamon called for. Then we individually wrap for easy transport. These have saved us SO MUCH MONEY over buying energy bars and everyone loves them. Thank you for the recipe!
Another tweak - we add chipotle peppers to greek yogurt instead of adding to sour cream. Your chipotle sauce is a game-changer for Mexican food, and we also often just dip tortilla chips into the chipotle/yogurt dip. Thank you to introducing me to chipotle peppers, and how to store them.
During the worst of the COVID shutdowns, I discovered that your baked potato soup is every bit as good when you replace half the milk the recipe calls for with water. There’s so much dairy in that recipe that is works! It’s tasty!
Ooh, good to know!
I often tweak recipes since I have dietary restrictions. I tweaked Kristen's spatchcock chicken recipe by sometimes cooking it on the stove top in a covered cast iron pan after browning, and I almost always put sturdy cut up vegetables in the pan under the chicken.
I always leave out certain spices and peppers that bother me and try to sub something similar that I tolerate well. I always do and always will change out cilantro for something else, since I don't like eating soap-flavored food.
I tried subbing cassava flour for regular flour in Kristen's cream biscuits on chicken. I make cassava biscuits with non-hydrogenated shortening and/or butter with no trouble, but the cream didn't work with the cassava flour. My biscuits melted in the oven all over my chicken casserole, and the resulting "crust" was... not great.
I made the sugar cookie recipe exactly as written, though, with all-purpose flour, and they were a hit with the family.
Oh, that reminds me. Kristen, will you do decorated cookies this Christmas? Will Lisey be home, I hope?
I haven't tweaked any of your recipes but yesterday I made the green chili corn quesadillas and they were great. I relied on my memory without checking the recipe again. That meant I forgot about the lime and cilantro . I think with those, it would be even better. I definitely will make again. Thank you for an excellent recipe.
@Ava, I also regularly make the granola, potato bread and Dutch baby.
@Ava, I don't think there's a Tex-Mexi anything I don't squeeze some lime juice on. It just makes everything better. For non Tex-Mexi things, like vegetables, a spritz of lemon juice just adds a little flavor.
I have tweaked the brinerade and your spatchcocked chicken. I start with a whole raw chicken and take out the inners, then cut out the spine. Then I triple your brinerade (without the water) and add enough jarred minced garlic to make my heart happy and then toss it all in a giant ziplock bag with my chicken. Then, I use the same measuring cup I made the brinerade in to add just enough water to make the chicken sloshy but not completely slacked in its ziploc. I usually let it go 4-6 hours but I’ve totally done overnight too! Bake at 350F in a Dutch oven with garlic, onion, and Tony’s on the skin, covered for about 90 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken. Remove the lid and broil for 4-5 minutes to get a brown and crispy skin. Enjoy!
Then, after we’ve eaten, I debone the rest of my chicken and toss the bones back in my Dutch oven with all the juices. Fill with water and leave in a 200F over overnight to make awesome chicken stock. I usually also toss in a chunked up onion and any old carrots from my fridge for extra love. Strain and then this becomes chicken soup for another meal that week!
Ooh, what a fun exercise. Made me think about how many of your recipes I'm using! I do love your enchiladas. I add a touch more seasoning (oregano, cinnamon, and chipotle powder) to the sauce, and make it a bit creamier with some milk or plain yogurt.
I also love your french bread recipe, but I usually reduce the white flour to add whole wheat flour, and I add seasoning to the dough as well. And I often save part of the loaf for your french bread pizzas as well. I know those don't really need a recipe, but your guidelines are helpful.
I like your Asian Glazed Tilapia recipe as well. I don't think I change that much.
I started with your brinerade, but switched to a slightly different one from America's Test Kitchen that uses fish sauce and honey, and I like that one a bit more than your recipe.
In general, you've helped inspire me - showing that yeasted bread really isn't scary or complicated, and that I can indeed conquer pizza. So Thanks!
So I have not made any if your recipes (yet) but can say definitely going to try your famous granola.
As far as substitutions for cooking we (teen & I) are allergic/high sensitively of dairy so use almond milk instead. Most time not big deal & definitely no coconut milk as it has some kind if dairy in it as teen has gotten quite ill after having tiny bit. We don't use real butter, instead I can't believe it butter which I find is closest to butter without dairy. Most all other ingredients use real/organic/farm fresh if possible.
When making granola/crumble topping I use mixture of quick & whole oats, ICBINB, brown sugar, real vanilla & maple syrup, LOTS OF CINNAMON, with no nuts (we only care for sliced almonds & peanuts--all kinds). Usually make multiple batches & put on top of apple crisp (& premade ready to bake).
As far as chicken I only buy bone in chicken & actually prefer dark meat/legs & thighs as they don't dry out. I do use whole chickens & separate Rotisserie into chicken breasts (mostly for sandwiches) but do not buy boneless skinless chicken.
Lately I have been substituting brown sugar for regular (white) sugar when baking (ran out) & using slightly less amounts. Brown sugar has less calories than white sugar & more moist/not as dry. Of course I can't substitute brown sugar for white with all recipes (graham cracker crust) but so far no problems. Going to try subscription in jumbo sugar cookies (pumpkins & ghosts) this weekend.
Great thread! I love your buttermilk biscuit recipe. If I don’t have buttermilk on hand, I use plain yogurt (regular or greek) thinned with a little milk. Works great! It might actually create fluffier biscuits than the original recipe. I have also added cheese or Italian seasoning, for flavored biscuits.
I love your no-stir granola! My default for the oats is quick oats because that's what I had on hand once and found I preferred the texture. As for add-ins, I typically do walnuts, though I've also done cashews with chopped candied ginger and one time realized I didn't have any nuts in the house and used sesame seeds instead. It was so good!
I’ve tweaked both the whole wheat sandwich bread and the white sandwich bread as they were both too wet to bake correctly in my bread machine.
Thanks for the granola recipe. I have to get back to making that. Not having to stir it is good.
Also, congratulations on passing yesterday. That first one is tough. Next one will be a bit easier, although you will have to know more.
Yes, I figure next time I will have a better idea of what to expect. AND next time I will have some actual clinical experience under my belt, which should help as well.
I tweaked your orzo recipe in a few ways - I used a vegan field roast sausage instead of real sausage and instead of asparagus or broccoli rabe, I've used kale and broccoli. And veggie broth instead of chicken broth. Still pretty tasty, if you ask me. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
The only tweaking I ever do with enchilada recipes is to sub softened corn tortillas for the flour. Flour tortillas in these parts are more for soft tacos or burritos. I find them gummy when cooked with sauce on them, even if I waited to put sauce on them just before putting into the oven. I have never tried your brinerated recipe, but I found that salting my chicken breasts and letting them sit in the fridge a few hours allows the brining process to work also. Rinse them, pat dry, then use in your recipe. And I have never made granola, but I might do that one soon!
I don't usually brine my chickens or turkeys. Instead I soak them in buttermilk.
I do tweak the two recipes I make most often.
My kids complained that the pumpkin/sweet potato chocolate chip muffins were too sweet the first time, so I've dropped the sugar to 1 1/2 cups and that works great.
Second, we deal with some zero spice people in our house. So, with the easy not-fried fish tacos, I put all of the chipotle chili pepper in the sauce. Then the spicy folks can have spicy, but those of use who can't have something we can eat. I do also double the quantity of fish rub so we still get lots of flavor.
Chicken enchiladas: 1)quadriple the amount of adobo sauce since I like spicy.
2)use 2 skinless with bone chicken thighs and simmer 45 min to 1 hour. When thighs are done, debone.
Tortellini soup:
1) use homemade spicy Italian sausage.
2) use twice amount of spices.
I love your recipes- the homemade pudding is a huge hit with my (now teen) kids! I've tweaked it on occasion to make vanilla pudding or added caramelized bananas to the bowls. I love your granola recipe- I add in golden and Thompson raisins before cooking as we like how chewy they get when baked. All of your recipes are so user and family friendly! Cookbook? On top of nursing school and all of your extra time 🙂
I'm sure I have tweeked other recipes but the one that comes to mind is the granola. I only use the maple syrup, no sugar and I don't like coconut (I think that's in the original?) but I have added cranraisins, golden raisins and I use what nuts I have in the freezer. I love this recipe and have made batches and batches packaged up for Christmas gifts.
The one I tweaked the most when my boys still lived at home is the pizza braid. We would add parmesan and garlic to the dough for pizza filling or spaghetti filling....added cumin and oregano for taco fillings, onion powder and bbq seasoning to fill with pulled pork bbq (with cheese and red onions), etc.
I've made the brinerade without the sugar. My husband is a type 1 diabetic so any time I can cut back sugar or carbs in a recipe I do. We love it just fine without it.
We're so set in our ways with meals that I rarely try any new recipes but this is one we love.
I found your blog when I was looking for carrot recipes. My family absolutely loves the roasted carrots. Over time, I modified it to make it simpler and they still turn out great. I don't bother covering them with foil or adjusting the temperature mid-way (I think that is what the original recipe called for but it has been so long since I've looked at it). I just coat the carrots in melted butter and salt and roast at 400 on a baking sheet until they turn slightly brown. Thanks so much for posting such delicious recipes.
Your brinerade chicken is also one of my favorites. I use it so often as a way to make chicken tenders more flavorful before they go into another recipe (such as chicken alfredo) and I also love it on chicken that is grilled.
Not really a "tweak" but your post on homemade yogurt sent me down the rabbit hole--I just feel so magical making my own yogurt (and bread). I work 60+ hours a week outside the home, so all the steps to make yogurt the conventional way were just too much for my limited time. Eventually I came around to making "cold start" yogurt in my electric pressure cooker. It takes 5 minutes of my time (plus 8 hours of incubation). I set it up for overnight fermentation and it's always fun to open the pot the next morning to the lovely smell of yogurt.
Here's how, if you have an electric pressure cooker with a yogurt function like an Instant Pot:
Start with Ultra High Temperature pasteurized milk. You need to look for the letters "UHT" or "UHP" somewhere on the carton. HINT: Most organic milks are UHT or UHP. This fast, high temperature pasteurization process takes the place of having to heat the milk to 185, which "denatures" the proteins so that they will form curds, and the milk is relatively sterile if you think that's why the heating is necessary. A lot of recipes for cold start yogurt call for Fairlife milk, but it's not necessary to use that brand (and some people have concerns about their treatment of their dairy herds). You can use any fat level of dairy milk you like from skim to cream. I use Half-and-Half. It has less sugar than lower fat milks and produces a thick, tasty yogurt. I'm not afraid of dairy fat.
Mix your milk (straight from the fridge) with culture (either yogurt with live cultures or a commercial yogurt culture). The ratio is 1 - 2 tbsp of yogurt for a half gallon, or according to the directions on the commercial culture.
You can either ferment the mixture directly in the Instant Pot inner pot, or pour it into canning jars and place them in the DRY pot. No water is needed! (REALLY!!!). I'm a fan of using the jars, because there's nothing to clean up. I can fit 3 pint jars in my 6 qt pot and that's the right amount for my small family. If you just add the ingredients to the pot, then you can make a larger batch.
Cover the pot (no need to seal, I use a glass lid) and press the "yogurt button" Make sure it's not the "boil" setting for yogurt if using an Instant Pot. You do not need to heat up the milk. The Instant Pot will bring everything up to fermentation temperature. Set the timer for 8 or more hours (more time = more sour). That's it.
When your yogurt is finished, you can flavor it up as you wish. You can strain it to make Greek-style yogurt. Or you can just refrigerate and enjoy it plain. Some people put the whole inner pot in the fridge covered until it's chilled so they "don't disturb the curd", but using milk with a higher fat content I don't find that necessary. It's already nicely thick and doesn't "break".
I love that I can still have homemade yogurt with only a 5 minute investment of my time.
One of yours that we love but always tweak is your Shrimp Viennese. I make the delicious rice and mushroom casserole as directed but instead of adding the shrimp to the casserole, I grill or broil the shrimp and then place them on the cooked casserole. We just prefer the texture of grilled/broiled shrimp!
Brinderaded Chicken: After I grill the chicken I put it right into a shallow dish with a marinade of some sort - lemon and herbs, Italian or whatever - sometimes I just use whatever oil and vinegar based salad dressing I have made and am using for salad. While it is hot, the chicken absorbs the marinade - which is now more like a sauce- and adds flavor to the check!
Like @crunchycakes I’ve found your orzo recipe so adaptable - I use any kind of meat and anything green, always delicious. I’m so grateful you shared it, we make it biweekly!
I love the granola recipe! I tweak it by adding cinnamon, pepitas, and a mix of ground flax, chia, and hemp seeds. I don't measure any of those, just what looks good.
@Allison B,
I do something similar! I also add cinnamon, allspice, and cloves by eyeball. Lately, I've taken to soaking the chia seeds first, then adding the other liquids to it before dumping it into the dry ingredients. Speaking of liquids, I make homemade vanilla, so I always add a big glue of that, too.
I found the original recipe too sweet, so I double (or triple) the other ingredients and hold back on doubling the sugar. I'm generous with the coconut, so it's always sweet enough.
Since this is "The Frugal Girl", I want to add that I haven't purchased regular cereal in years. I but the granola ingredients in bulk and I figure I've saved a fortune and avoided significant packaging waste over the years, thanks to Kristen's recipe.
I remembered that you had modified my granola recipe, so I was hoping you'd come by here and add your edits!
I frequently make your CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER OAT BARS. I make a sling from parchment paper and spray it lightly with cooking spray. After refrigerating the baked bars, I lift them from the pan, peel off the paper, and use a long, sharp knife to cut it into bite sized pieces. So delicious and addictive we all call it “crack”!
Every time I buy family pack chicken, I make the Brinderade and put 2 pieces of chicken and some of the sauce in each baggie before storing it in the freezer. I then use the chicken in lots of different recipes.
When I make your chocolate pudding, I skip the make a paste step and I use a double boiler. I scorch my pan every time I've just done it in a saucepan.
I've made chewy orange granola bars with other flavors of jams (blackberry, raspberry, apple). I cut back on the butter too.
I love your fluffy hamburger buns recipe. I make it with all whole wheat flour and a few tablespoons of gluten and they come out just as fluffy and delicious!