Been a little busy this week with the kids home from school for winter “break” (I guess countless snow days, early dismissals, and late starts since December weren’t enough of a break!). I’ve also been busy playing with my new camera! I’m really excited about my new camera but have so much to learn and going to be awhile before I get it up and running! Looking forward to improving my food pictures in time! My poor blog has been so neglected this week!
Anyways, I had some extra Cardamom Apple-Pearsauce in the freezer from awhile back and thought I’d do some baking with it. I was in the mood for blondies for some strange reason so I decided to make a cross between blondies and an apple cake.
If you don’t have any Cardamom Apple-Pearsauce you could probably use any thick apple or fruit sauce as a substitute. If you don’t like nuts you can omit them or butterscotch chips would be a great substitute.
The batter comes together fast. Spread the batter carefully to the edges of the pan with a spatula.
The cake bars will be golden brown when finished. Be sure to check the middle with a cake tester or toothpick to make sure the center is cooked through.
These “bars” would be great warm with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce for a really special treat!
| Apple-Pear Blondie Cake Bars |
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- 1 cup flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup
- Cardamom Apple-Pearsauce
- (or applesauce)
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray an 8×8-inch baking dish with nonstick spray.
- Whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in small bowl until well combined.
- Beat together apple-pear sauce, butter, and sugar in large mixing bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well combined, then beat in egg and vanilla. Beat in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in nuts. Pour into prepared baking dish.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool, then cut into 9 pieces.
- Makes 9 bars
SNAPPY SUBSTITUTIONS: I used my homemade Apple-Pearsauce but you could use any apple or fruit sauce. You can use any variety of nuts or omit them all together or substitute something else such as butterscotch chips. If you like more of the cardamom flavor, substitute cardamom for the cinnamon.
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That is my kind of dessert–we have some homemade spiced applesauce that would work well for this, and, we woke up to snow! Time to bake.
I bet these bars stay moist even until the next day. And cardamom besides, yum. I have a sweet treat linky party going on at my blog and I’d like to invite you to stop by and link your blondies up. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweets-for-saturday-6.html