Apple Brownies

A kitchen well supplied with apples. A request for cookies for a community event. Not a lot of time.

What better combination of ingredients to try out some apple bar cookies. Why specifically bar cookies?  Almost every bar cookie recipe is quicker to make than any other kind. Mix up the batter, pour it in the pan, and bake. No trying to get lots of little blobs of batter formed in even, nice round shapes, let alone considering the effort involved with rolled out cookies.

A little riffling through my recipe files and cookbooks and more searching on the internet revealed nothing quite like what I had in mind, so I played with a couple of very old recipes and came up with these rich tasting and easy brownie-like cookies. 

The final recipe is large, in part because of the current request for bar cookies, and I have included the amounts needed for half a batch at the end of this post. However, I strongly suggest you consider the full recipe. You have all the ingredients out anyway, so the only thing that really takes extra time is dicing two cups of apples instead of just one. Any extra bars can be frozen for later use and should keep well if tightly covered--though I haven't been able to test that. Every batch I've now made has been finished too quickly to know.

As usual, I did not peel the apples for this recipe. Unless you have a variety with a very tough skin, keeping the peeling on adds flavor and fiber and also yields more fruit per apple. And, of course, it takes less time to prepare the apples too.

How to top them? These really need absolutely nothing to add to the flavor and appearance.  As you can see from the photos, these will develop that rather crinkly, slightly crisp but also chewy brownie top, perfect without anything added.

If you really want to gild the lily, however, serving these warm from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream will make you forget about ever again making an apple pie!

Apple Brownies

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup oil

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon soda

2 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (see NOTE)

2 cups chopped apples (pack quite firmly in measuring cup)

1 cup chopped walnuts

1.  Chop the apples and set aside. This can be done in a food processor or manually.

2.  Beat together the butter, oil, sugars, eggs, and vanilla.

3.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, soda, and pumpkin pie spice, and stir into the egg mixture. The batter will be quite stiff.

4.  When the batter is thoroughly blended, fold in the apples and walnuts and stir just enough to be sure the apples and nuts are evenly distributed.

5.  Turn the mixture into a very well oiled 11 X 13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. If using a glass pan, set the oven at 325 degrees. Cool in the pan before cutting. Makes about 48 cookies.

NOTE:  You may substitute 1 1/2 cinnamon, 1/2 t ginger,  and 1/2 t nutmeg for the pumpkin pie spice if desired. 

VARIATION:

Add 1 cup butterscotch chips with the walnuts.

Half Batch Variation

1/4 c butter
1/4 c oil
1/2  c sugar
1/3 c brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
1 c flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t soda
1 1/4 t pumpkin pie spice (see NOTE)
1 c chopped apples (pack quite firmly in measuring cup)
1/2 c chopped walnuts

Proceed with the recipe as above. Bake in a well-oiled 8 X 8 or 9 X 9 inch square pan.

NOTE:  You may substitute 3/4 t cinnamon, 1/4 t ginger,  and 1/4 t nutmeg for the pumpkin pie spice if desired.