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.

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Bars

My husband bought me an awesome, fantastic, beautiful KitchenAid mixer for my Birthday this year.  I have been admiring the mixer as it sits reagally on my kitchen counter for the past three weeks now, but I have yet to use it.  Today I decided that had to change.  I needed to see just what this puppy could do, I needed to get it dirty and see what all the hub-bub was all about when it came to these mixers. 

I wanted to choose a recipe that I otherwise would hate to mix up by shear hand power alone.  I always hated making oatmeal raisin cookies because of just how tough it was to stir by hand after adding in all those darn oats and raisins into the batter.  What sucks about this is they are mine and my husbands most favorite cookies, but due to my lack of any real upper body strength,  I rarely make them.  I didn't want to do a cookie, but I found a recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Bars, that I thought would be perfect to use while putting my mixer to the test.

The KitchenAid mixer quite simply ROCKS!!  If you don't have one yet...splurge and get one.  You will not be disappointed in the least.  You also won't be disappointed in these bars.  They are moist, soft, chewy and unbelievably delicious.  Oh, and since the have oatmeal and raisins in them, they are healthy for you.  Really, they are! ;^)

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Bars - adapted from bakingbites.com

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
2 cups quick cooking (not instant) oats
1 1/2 cups raisins


Directions:
1.  Toss the flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and spices in your large mixer bowl and mix until combined.

2.  Mix in the vanilla, egg and melted butter until smooth. Stir in oats and raisins until well combined.
3.  Dump the mixture into a greased 8x8 baking pan, and bake at 350F for 23-27 minutes. 
4.  Allow to cool before digging in.