Brown Sugar How Come You Taste So Good?

I brought a terrific baking book this weekend called, Bars & Squares more than 200 recipes by Jill Snider. It is jammed packed with gorgeous recipes such as, apple blondies with brown sugar frosting, toffee brownies, party pink coconut squares, apricot almond bars, peanut butter candy bars, to name but a few that caught my attention. I was in quite a dilemma of what to bake first if I?m honest here. I think what made my mind up was, I had a couple of granny smith apples and a few walnuts that needed using up. *I thought you would love these blondies too*.

These bars are brilliant with a cake-like interior and speckles of soft chunks of apple and that little bite of chopped walnuts with cinnamon flavour shining through. The frosting is scrumptious and sweet, which finishes off the all round flavour of these bars. However, the frosting is very sweet and should you wish to omit this, the blondies would taste great on their own.

Adapted from Bars & Squares more than 200 recipes by Jill Snider

Ingredients

Blondies
2/3 cup softened butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose (plain) flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped peeled apples
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Brown Sugar Frosting
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 milk or cream
2 cups of confectioner?s (icing) sugar

You will need a 9in x 13 in (23cm x 33cm) baking tin lined and greased with foil.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and leave aside until later.

In a large bowl, add the butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract and beat until smooth and thick. Fold in the flour mixture gently then fold through the chopped apples, cinnamon and nuts. Place the mixture into the prepared tin, spread evenly, and smooth the top with a spatula or back of a spoon. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 ? 30 minutes until set and golden. Place on a wire rack to cool completely in the tin.

Brown Sugar Frosting

In a small pan over a low heat and stirring with a wooden spoon, melt the butter, brown sugar and milk. Bring the mixture to just boiling then remove from the heat to cool until lukewarm. Stir in the confectioner?s (icing) sugar mixing with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth. Spread evenly over the cold Blondies. Let the frosting set until firm before slicing into squares or bars of your chosen size.

Lastly, sit back and fill your boots with a slice of the apple blondies with brown sugar frosting, while playing in the background, brown sugar how come you taste so good?