I had a bunch of Maple frosting left over from the Pumpkin Cupcakes, I knew I wanted to make something I would eat as I don’t like pumpkin. I saw these apple bars on a few blogs and decided to pull out my cookbook and make them.

I loved these bars, they have so much flavor and I really like the frosting with them, the recipe calls for a carmel glaze but I did the maple frosting.

Applesauce Spice Bars (From: Baking From Your Home To Mine, B: Dorie Greenspan)

• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick (8 tbsp) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp applejack, brandy, or dark rum (optional)
• 1 baking apple, such as Rome or Cortland, peeled, cored and finely diced or chopped
• 1/2 cup plump, moist raisins (dark or golden) (I omitted) 
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans (I omitted)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan, line the bottom with parchment paper, butter the paper and dust the inside of the pan with flour. Tap out the excess flour and put the pan on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.

In a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the brown sugar and stir with a whisk until it is melted and the mixture is smooth, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.

Still working in the saucepan, whisk in the eggs one at a time, mixing until they are well blended. Add the applesauce, vanilla and applejack, if you’re using it, and whisk until the ingredients are incorporated and the mixture is once again smooth. Switch to a rubber spatula and gently stir in the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear, then mix in the apple, raisins and nuts. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, or until the bars just start to pull away from the sides of the pan and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the baking pan to a rack and let the cake cool while you make the glaze.

Maple Frosting (From: Culinary Concoctions by Peabody)

• 4 tbsp butter, softened
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3 cups powdered sugar

The orginal recipe was for blackberry almond bars, but I gave Adam his choice of berries, he picked blueberry so mine are Blueberry Almond Bars Adam and my brother said these bars are amazing!!! Sorry these aren’t the best pictures

  For the shortbread:
  

• 12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup ground toasted almonds
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

For the blackberry curd:

• 2 pints blueberries
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
• 4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces

Confection sugar for dusting

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9-by-13-by-2-inch cake pan.

To make the shortbread, in the bowl of a food processor, combine the butter, flour, almonds, granulated sugar and salt and process until small lumps form. Sprinkle the mixture into the prepared pan and press evenly into the bottom. Bake until the shortbread is golden, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

Meanwhile, make the blackberry curd: In a food processor or blender, puree the blackberries until smooth. Pass the puree through a chinois set over a bowl, using a pestle to press on the solids and extract as much juice as possible; discard the solids. You should have about 3/4 cup juice.

In the top pan of a double boiler or in a nonreactive saucepan, whisk together the eggs and granulated sugar until blended. Then whisk in the blueberry juice, salt and lemon juice. Set the top pan over but not touching simmering water in the bottom pan, or set the saucepan over medium-low heat. (If using a saucepan, take care not to heat the mixture too quickly.) Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula or spoon, until the mixture is warmed through, 1 to 2 minutes.

Begin adding the butter a little at a time, stirring each addition until blended before adding more. Continue cooking, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan, until a finger drawn across the back of the spatula leaves a path, 8 to 10 minutes more. Immediately remove the pan from the heat. Pass the curd through the chinois set over a bowl and let stand for 10 minutes. Whisk to blend, then pour the curd over the shortbread, spreading it evenly to the edges.

Bake until the curd is set, about 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely. Cut into individual bars, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Dust the bars with confectioners’ sugar before serving.

Makes 20 bars. 

My mommy yelled at me this week, for a boring blog that was lacking updates… I am VERY sorry, work had been crazy and were trying to get ready to move. I am sorry to all you blog readers, as well as my dear mother

I actually made these earlier this week but just hadn’t taken a picture of them, I was not the happiest with the result, they aren’t bad, but I like the other blondie recipe better. I had bought a thing of Almond paste a while back, and had NO clue what to make with it. I finally decided to make some cherry almond blondies, I was expecting a killer blondie, but came out with an ok blondie.

I followed an outline recipe from Gillan at Gillan’s Goodies. To find her recipe from Amaretto Brownies go here. Below is my recipe for Cherry Almond Blondies

Cherry Almond Blondies (From: Myself)

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup almond paste
• 2 T. half and half
• 1 tsp. vanilla or almond extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 2/3 c. flour
• 1 c. cherry chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8 or 9 inch square pan.

Melt almond paste and butter in a sauce pan, cool slightly.

Beat in brown sugar until smooth and mixed in.

Mix in half and half and extract, then add eggs one at a time.

Beat in flour and baking powder. Add cherry chips.

Pour into prepared pan, bake 20-30 minutes and until the center comes out clean on a tooth pick.

My grandma shared this recipe with me, at first she called them lemon bars, I was like naw I don’t need the recipe. I am not a big lemon bar fan. Then I tried one. These are AMAZING!

The layers go perfect together! For some reason when I made them my cool-whip was runny, so it was hard to get a picture. But these are a perfect and simple summer dessert to whip up.

Lemon Lush (From: My Grandmas Neighbor)

• 1 container cool-whip
• 1 pkg. cream cheese
• 4 c. milk
• 3 sm. packages instant lemon pudding
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1 c.  powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 sticks butter

Mix the butter and flour together and spread into a non stick 9 x 13 baking pan.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Cool completly.

Mix cream cheese, 1 c. cool whip, and powdered sugar together. Spread on top of cooled crust.

Beat pudding mix and milk together until it starts to thicken pour over cream cheese layer.

Cover with rest of the coolwhip.

Chill until you serve.

One of my dads favorite desserts is 7 layer bars, I knew I wouldn’t have time to make a cake for his birthday so I decided to make 7 layer bars instead. This is an easy recipe and one I learn from my grandma These are ALWAYS a hit. Normally For the first time I added cherry chips in too. They seemed to add a great flavor to them as well.

7 layer bars (From: Grandma)

• 1 bag chocolate chips
• 1 bag butterscotch chips
• 1 bag cherry chips (This was the first time I used these)
• 1 bag coconut
• 1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
• 4 T. melted butter
• nuts (optional)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix melted butter and graham cracker crumbs together.

Layer chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and cherry chips.

Top with coconut then pour over condensed milk.

Bake for 30-45 minutes until they are bubbly and golden brown.