Apple Butter Bars

These little bars surprised the heck out of me!  The whole reason I made these was to remove a jar of apple butter and a box of granola from my stash but holy smokes these are really delicious!  I would actually go buy more apple butter and make these again if that didn't defeat the entire purpose of having less stuff.

Not only are these freakin' delicious, but they're also super easy to make.  You don't even need a mixer which is unusual in my baking realm (maybe that's why my mixer is making weird sounds like it's about to throw in the towel at any minute - I have no mercy for my poor stand mixer when I double recipes that barely fit, knead multiple batches of dough for 30 minutes at a time and generally test the limits of its overheated motor).

Butter, brown sugar, flour, oats, granola, baking soda, salt and extracts are combined together to form a crumbly dough.  Half of that gets pressed a pan, topped with apple butter and topped with the remaining dough.  This is easy people.

The inclusion of the granola was a little weird to me - why not just put in more oats and spices and such, but I think having those chunks in there did something for the bar.  It may have been a little bit heartier than it otherwise would have been so I'm now on board with the granola decision.  Plus, it meant I rid my pantry of a random granola-ish box of cereal that is that we bought on accident.

It bakes into a uniform bar.  You definitely want to let it cool before slicing it because these are a little gooey and will fall apart if you cut them while they're still warm.

I thought about adding some spices into the dough that would pair well with the apple - cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, etc. -  but I'm glad I didn't.  Apple butter already has a lot of spices in it so if I'd added any I think it would have been overpowering.  Don't skip the almond extract here (I cut back on the amount in the original recipe and almost left it out because I generally don't like almond extract but for some reason I left it in).  The almond flavor is a perfect compliment to the spices, apples and granola.

This definitely has the feeling of Fall with the apples and warm spices but I'd eat these suckers anytime.

Apple Butter Bars
Adapted from She Simmers

Ingredients
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
1 cup Granola (I used Kashi Go Lean Crunch)
1/2 cup Oatmeal
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Almond Extract
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 cups Apple Butter

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9" x 13" pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl mix together all the ingredients except for the apple butter until crumbly.

Crumble half of the mixture in the prepared pan, pressing it down to cover the entire bottom of the pan in a fairly even layer.  Spread apple butter on top.  Cover with the remaining crumb mixture and pres down gently.

Bake 20-25 minutes, cool and cut into squares.

Enjoy!
Julie