Apple Bars

Hi guys, wow finally a few minutes to sit down and write on the blog.  Life sure has been crazy lately.  My laptop's hard drive crashed a few weeks ago so I lost quite a few pictures that I had not had the chance to backup yet, including almost all my recent cooking adventures that were waiting in the wings to be blogged.  Luckily these delicious apple bar pictures were still loaded on my camera's memory card.  So now that my computer is up and running again and I've modified my back up schedule to every time I transfer data, I can finally get back to blogging. Well, you know, as much as little K let's me anyways :-).  Teething is a wonderful.... it'sagoodthingwegothroughitwhenwearetoolittletoremember... thing.

So anyways let's talk about these apple bars. I debated about what to call these: apple cake, apple squares, apple blondies, but I finally settled on apple bars. The bars are a beautiful cross between cake and blondies so neither of those names fit just right and apple squares, which is what I have written down on the recipe card, isn't right either because what if you don't feel like squares and want to cut rectangles? That's probably just me being silly though.  Any way you cut these, they are absolutely delicious.

The bars are fluffy but chewy and moist with a thin, crisp,  sugary top. The lovely apple and cinnamon flavors make the bars the perfect autumn dessert or they would even be great for a Sunday brunch too.  This is a wonderful, easy, delicious recipe to have in your collection especially for the fall season and the upcoming holidays.  The bars do have a bit of a cooking time, but they only take about 10 minutes to put together and you most likely have everything on hand to make them already!  I hope you give these apples bars a try soon!  Before I go, here is a 6 month old picture of little K in his pumpkin costume before the local annual pumpkin festival we attended a few weeks ago.  He is the perfect little pumpkin! 

Apple Bars

3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 cups, peeled and diced apples
1 tsp white sugar, for topping

Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking dish.  Beat the eggs for 2-3 minutes, with a mixer on medium speed, until they are starting to become frothy and pale yellow. Add the sugar and beat until combined.  Then mix in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla.  Finally add the oil and beat until just combined.  Use a spatula to fold the apples into the batter.  Pour the batter into the baking dish and sprinkle the top with a little additional sugar.  Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.  Cool to room temperature before serving.

Enjoy!