Sour Cream Apple Bars

I was in a kitchen-y kind of mood today, so after enjoying a bowl of Taco Soup which I posted earlier today, I decided I wanted something sweet.  I had one ingredient requirement for this sweet treat.  Apples!  Living in Nebraska, we are all about apples come Fall.  Every year at the end of September or early October my husband and I will make the trek down to Nebraska City (Home of Arbor Day) and visit a couple of apple orchards. We haven't had an opportunity to go and hand pick our apples yet, however I did have some Granny Smith apples sitting in the fridge just waiting to be eatem up, and as chance would have it, yesterday I had found a really awesome blog site that so just happened to have posted a very delicious looking apple treat.  It seemed as if the stars were all aligned.  Destiny was calling...and you can't ignore destiny, right? 

Sour Cream Apple Bars - recipe from Your Home Based Mom

Ingredients:

  For Crust:

     1 cup butter, softened

     1 cup brown sugar, packed firmly

     2 cups quick cooking oats

     1 cup flour

     1 cup chopped pecans

     1 tsp baking soda

     1 tsp cinnamon

     1/4 tsp allspice

  For Filling:

     1 cup sour cream

     3/4 cup sugar

     2 tbsp flour

     1 egg

     2 medium Granny Smith apples, unpeeled and shredded

Directions:

1.  Mix butter and brown sugar in large mixing bowl, beat until creamy.

2.  Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and allspice.  Mix well.

3.  Add oats and pecans and mix well.

4.  In an ungreased 9 x 13 baking pan, press half of the crust mixture over the bottom of the pan.  Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes until golden.

5. While your crust is baking, mix all the ingredients for the filling in a large mixing bowl.  Pour the filling on the hot crust, then crumble and spread the rest of the crust mixture all over the top of the filling, lightly pressing it down.

6.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the center is set and the topping is a nice and brown.  (Note:  The original recipe said to bake it for 25-30, but my center was still pretty jiggly so I went 38 minutes.  In other words keep an eye on it and don't be afraid to stick it back in the oven for a couple minutes at a time until it is perfect.)

7.  Allow the bars to cool, and store in the refrigerator.