Wanted to share something I recently discovered that's great for baking with less sugar: date paste. I like using date paste because it adds some flavor in addition to sweetness. My date paste is about 50% sugar by weight, and I usually substitute it one-for-one by weight for sugar in a recipe.

I've found this to work very well in things where the earthiness of the dates complements the other flavors. I made KA's banana bread with 3/4c date paste for the brown sugar and honey (and subbed white whole wheat for half the flour). It came out amazing - nicely moist, good balance of sweetness and banana flavor. I've also used it as the filling in a cinnamon raisin swirl bread, where it also really shines. I've been experimenting with using it in brownies - so far, it works really well in microwave mug brownies, and I've had pretty good results with traditional brownies.

Sugar retains water and helps keep baked goods moist. Date paste seems to have a similar effect. Because of the fiber, it'll make some things cakier (e.g. the brownies I mentioned above).

I make my date paste by soaking medjool dates in boiling water for 10 minutes, draining, then blending them, adding water as necessary. It takes a lot of scraping the sides, but it's easy to make a big batch.

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