Apple Spice Bars

Yesterday I went apple picking for the first time this season, and while it was a touch early for some of the varieties I like to have on hand, I managed to stock up on one of my all-time favorites: the McIntosh. There’s just something about McIntosh apples that I really like. I could sit there and munch on them all day, especially if I have a nice jar of peanut butter on hand. But if there’s one thing I absolutely love about McIntosh apples, it’s the fact that they’re the perfect addition to many of my favorite fall baking recipes, including these apple spice bars.

This recipe really embraces all the wonderful flavors of fall. You’ve got cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar combining with fresh, juicy apples to form one of the most perfect concoctions you could ever imagine. If you decide to make them, do yourself a favor and spend some time in your kitchen while these babies are baking up. You’ll be overwhelmed by the warm, comforting aroma of spices as you stand there anticipating how good they’ll taste fresh out of the oven.

Of course, you’ll need to wait a little while to let your bars cool. And you should be warned that once they’re ready, you may have a hard time eating just one. I find that these soft, moist cake bars pair perfectly with a nice warm beverage, be it a strong cup of coffee or a mug of chai or herbal tea. And if you happen to be lucky enough to taste them while they’re still slightly warm, you’ll pretty much be in heaven.

Apple Spice Bars
Recipe very slightly adapted from Beantown Baker

Ingredients:

2 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled to room temp
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups diced and peeled McIntosh apples
Brown sugar for topping, optional

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×13 baking pan and set aside.
2. In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices.
3. In a large bowl, combine the sugars and butter. Whisk thoroughly until well-combined. (Note: The original recipe suggests using a stand mixer. I didn’t want to bust mine out, and the power whisk method worked just fine for me.)
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating or whisking well to combine. Add vanilla extract and mix thoroughly.
5. Fold in the flour mixture a little at a time until just combined. Stir in apples and mix well.
6. Spread the batter into your prepared pan and sprinkle the top with brown sugar.
7. Bake for 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. The top should be very slightly browned and springy.
8. Remove the bars from the oven and let them cool completely in their pan. Since they’re very soft, I recommend being patient and waiting a good two hours before cutting and serving. However, feel free to keep walking over and smelling them as they cool. It’ll be somewhat torturous, but trust me, the aroma is all part of the experience.

Sep 12

Apple Walnut Coffee Cake a/k/a Apple Disaster Cake

Last week, I discovered why it can sometimes be a problem to bake in somebody else’s kitchen. I was visiting my mom and decided that in honor of September and the fact that she’s awesome, I’d make one of her favorite cakes.

I stumbled upon this recipe several years ago and have been making it every September since then. The cake itself is moist, sweet but not too sweet, and full of so many of the fall flavors I absolutely love. And as an added bonus, when made correctly, it looks absolutely beautiful, especially with the baked apple pieces and walnuts adorning the top.

But as you can see, my most recent version of this cake didn’t turn out quite as lovely. And here’s why: When you use somebody else’s kitchen, you don’t always stop to think about how to handle equipment that’s different than yours. And whereas I have a tube pan that can be easily lifted from the top, my mom’s tube pan is the type where you insert the top into the bottom as sort of a separate, unattached piece.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

No sooner had I assembled a gorgeous, layered version of this fabulous cake when I foolishly decided to grab the tube pan from the top and bring it over to the oven. By doing so, I immediately managed to dislodge the top from the bottom, causing cake batter to spill rapidly out of the bottom of the pan and all over my mom’s countertop.

As you can imagine, I was not happy. But my mom, who’s a much sport than I am about these things, had a great idea: Instead of throwing out the spilled batter (which, by the way, constituted at least half the cake), wasting all those ingredients, and starting over from scratch, why not scoop it up, throw it into a 9×13 pan, and bake it as a non-layered, less pretty apple coffee cake?

The stubborn part of me initially tried to protest. After all, I wanted my cake in its original form, and I wanted to serve it to my mom the way she was used to having it. But not only is my mom a much better sport than I am, she can also be far more practical. And after spending several minutes consoling me (you know, her adult daughter who’s a mama herself and who was basically bordering on crying over spilled batter) and assuring me that this less spectacular version of the cake would no doubt turn out equally delicious, I agreed to proceed with Operation Cake Salvage.

And so we scooped up the spilled batter, dumped everything into a rectangular cake pan, and hoped for the best. And sure enough, the cake tasted incredible—moist, sweet but not too sweet, and full of the fall flavors that make it a winner, even when disaster strikes. And although I still recommend baking it in a tube pan as the original recipe suggests, if you don’t have one, you could always do what I did and make a less pretty but equally yummy version.

Apple Walnut Coffee Cake
Original recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
6 apples (the original recipe calls for McIntosh apples; I used Cortland and Gala this time around but have used McIntosh in the past)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube (or 9 x 13 baking) pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.
2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.
3. Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.

Sep 11

Coconut Chocolate Chip Blondies

When it comes to fall (or early/pre-fall) baking, I’m usually all about the apples. But at the same time, I also like to mix it up a little. Since I hadn’t done anything with coconut for awhile, I decided to whip up a batch of coconut chocolate chip blondies.

This recipe is incredibly tasty and incredibly easy. You don’t need to bust out any fancy tools or spend more than 10-15 minutes putting these blondies together. Just have a couple of mixing bowls and spoons on hand, and you’ll be all set.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Blondies
Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker

Ingredients:

1 cup AP flour
1/8 tsp salt
4 ounces unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease and flour an 8×8 baking pan.
2. Combine the flour and salt; set aside.
3. Stir together the melted butter and brown sugar until smooth; beat in the egg and vanilla extract until well-blended.
4. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until blended; then stir in the coconut and chocolate chips.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan; use a rubber spatula (or the back of a spoon you’re already using if you’re feeling lazy, which is perfectly okay) to smooth the top.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until set in the center but still soft. Cool completely (at least one hour, but two would be better) before cutting and serving.