Apple Bars

I have been buying a lot of apples lately - partly because they are on sale at Costco & partly because I am loving eating them with peanut butter for lunch. I love the taste of the two together & you don't have the guilt of eating too much bread. Which is my downfall!

I have made this recipe twice in the last week and need to stop now. It is too good to resist & I am trying to put as many into the kids lunches as possible to get them out of the house! These bars are so yummy. They puff up as they cook and the top gets crackly and crisp while the inside is soft and gooey. They have a bit of a fall feel to them, which I always love.

Apple Bars

Printable recipe here

1 cup melted butter

2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 cups peeled, cored and diced apples

1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.

Mix the butter, sugar and egg until creamy. Add in the flour, soda and cinnamon and mix well. Stir in the apples and walnuts. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Remember, the outside will be crispy and look done while the middle might still be gooey!

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Bars

I had to make a treat for pre-school today and decided to make these bars I saw on Allrecipes. They are no-bake, peanut butter, graham crackers & chocolate - all my favorites! Oh my gosh! They are so yummy. I have made peanut butter bars before and these are definitely the best I have ever made. They are thick and dense and have just the right amount of peanut butter taste, not too overpowering. I need to get them out of my house quickly.

Peanut Butter Bars

• 1 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 4 tablespoons peanut butter
• 
  
• In a medium bowl, mix together the butter or margarine, graham cracker crumbs, confectioners' sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter until well blended. Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.
• 
  
• In the microwave, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. I started with 30 seconds, mixed and then cooked at 15 seconds intervals until melted and smooth. Spread over the prepared crust. Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into squares.

Give them a try and see if you can stop eating them!

Apple Bars

I love the fall time when you can start baking with all of the apples and pumpkins! It is not good though, because I love to eat just as much as I love to bake.

I found this recipe so I could make something new with all of the apples we got at "Apple Hill" here in Cali. And oh my... it is perfect. In fact, it is so yummy I think I polished off about 3/4 of it myself. No exaggeration.

Apple Bars

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup peeled and chopped apple

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

2 Tbs. white sugar

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

** Caramel ice-cream topping

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the butter, and sugars until smooth. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. It should look nice and smooth, like this...

Blend in the flour mixture into the eggs and butter until just combined. Stir in the apples and walnuts. This is the mixture right before I put in the apples - you can see how much thicker the batter is now.

Spread the mixture evenly into the greased pan. In a little bowl, stir together the remaining cinnamon and sugar & then sprinkle over the bars. Doesn't it already look delicious!

Bake for 30 minutes or until the bars spring back when touched. Cool in the pan and then cut into bars. For an extra little sweet I ran some caramel ice-cream topping over the top of mine! Wow, sooo good! I have been wanting to make them again, but am positive my will power will leave me again!

Blueberry Crumb Bars

I saw these bars on a blog last week and immediately knew I needed to try them. I have become addicted to blueberries lately, I put them on everything. I am a big cobbler fan also (what am I not a fan of?) so to combine blueberries and cobbler is YUM!

I have found a new favorite recipe. We ate it warm out of the oven with some vanilla ice cream and it was sooo good. I thought it couldn't get much better until I took a piece out of the fridge the next morning - yes, I ate a piece for breakfast! And it was even better cold! I am not allowed to make any more now. I have no will power.

I got this recipe from the blog yourhomebasedmom. She has lots of great recipes!

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup cold butter (2 sticks)

1 egg

1/4 tsp. salt

zest and juice of one lemon

4 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1/2 cup white sugar

4 tsp. cornstarch

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.

Stir together the first three ingredients. Mix in the salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Pat half of the dough in the pan. It is okay if it is a little crumbly, just press it with your fingers until it looks like this.

In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Mix in the blueberries. I had some fresh berries but not enough, so I just substituted the remaining amount with frozen blueberries. I didn't even thaw them out! Layer the blueberry mixture over the dough in the pan.

Crumble the remaining dough over the top. It will already look pretty!

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the top is golden.

Eat warm with ice cream or wait until it is cool and cut into bars. Just try not to eat them for every meal!