Look out. I’m warning you right now that this recipe is addictive…
My roommate, Christin, introduced me to these bars last week. I was just finishing a 12-hour day of work around 9pm and found a text from her inviting me to try these “new apple bars” when I got home. Never one to turn down homemade dessert, and super-hungry after a long day, I immediately grabbed one when I walked in the door. And oh my word. Looking at the recipe beforehand, I was expecting good. These were great!!! They are are everything a sweet, fruity, cinnamony, chewy bar should be.
Pretty sure I immediately made a second batch to bring to a choir potluck last night. Although this time I substituted in white whole wheat flour and added in some nutmeg, and loved the result! Definitely a great quick, delicious, and crowd-pleasing recipe to keep on file. I’m pretty sure it will be reappearing in my kitchen again verrrrry soon. :)
Apple Cinnamon Raisin Bars
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
Description
This delicious Apple Cinnamon Raisin Bars recipe is perfect for snacking, or even for dessert. Try them today!
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour (or white whole-wheat flour)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (optional)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Golden Delicious apple, diced into 1/4″ cubes (about 1 1/2 cups)
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Liberally coat a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
- In a medium-size bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmg and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, blend together sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla for 3 minutes or until smooth. Reduce speed to low and gradually add flour mixture; mix for 2 minutes or until just incorporated. Stir in diced apples, raisins and (optional) nuts, and spread into prepared pan.
- Bake at 350F degrees for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting into bars and serving.
Notes
Adapted from Family Circle.
Ali’s Tip:
This would also be delicious using pears instead of apples!
Source:
Adapted from Family Circle.
Can’t wait to try these
When I finished mixing all the ingredients and put them in the pan, the ‘batter’ was not very moist -not like a cake mixture. I’m baking it anyways. I hope it is eatible.
Made these last night and they were yummy. A couple of notes:
1) I subbed Craisins because I like them better than raisins and I think they are a nice complement to apples. Yummy!
3) I cooked at 325 Convection – I ended up cooking it for 40+ minutes. See my comments after my last point.
2) I used 1.5 c. Dark Brown Sugar and 1/2 c. unrefined Organic Light Brown Sugar because that was what I had. I would like to remake these using regular Light Brown Sugar.
The top got crunchy quickly but the insides didn’t cook as fast. I pulled it out after 25 mins because the top was so crunchy and browned. The toothpick came out clean but after letting them cool and cutting into them, I found the inside was not done – it was really gooey (as in not serve-able gooey), thus the reason I ended up cooking it longer (I put it back in). If I hadn’t let them cool first, it’s possible the 35 mins would have been sufficient.
I don’t know how much of an impact using dark brown sugar rather than light brown contributed to how crunchy the top got. The edges ended up being too hard so I just cut those off.
The flavor was delicious and the people at the party I brought them to really seemed to enjoy them. :)
In summary, I’m going to make them again but try regular light brown sugar and maybe set my convection to 330 or 335 instead of 325.
Loved this recipe, but way too much sugar for my liking. Will make it again, but using half the sugar.
So good! My kids begged for a Costco size bag or raisins then decided they don’t like raisins. This was a great recipe to use up some of my raisin stores!
This is a very good bar – thank you! I( did reduce the sugar to 1.5 packed cups but d still found it a bit too sweet for my taste – next time I will try 1 ¼ packed cups).
Great recipe. I undercooked a little, next time it’ll bake longer. Loved it!
Do you peel the apples first?
Or leave the skins on?
OMGosh!!! Made ’em, tried ’em before they they cooled, had to pack up 3/4 of ’em up and share to prevent me from eating all of ’em myself! Had to substitute dark brown sugar, but picked up light for the next batch… tho I can’t imaging them being any better.
Loved this recipe! It was an instant hit!! We used egg replacer and coconut sugar as subs this time around. Wondering how to store these bar though? Thanks!!