17.9.13

Warm Applesauce Spice Bars # GYCO Applesauce Challenge

Its already been 2 months since GYCO Blackberry challenge. Hence time for yet another Get your Chef On ! This month Julie from White Lights of Wednesday and Jen from Four Mars and One Venus challenged us to make/bake something special with Applesauce. Since applesauce happens to be one of my favorite substitutes for butter and eggs I immediately signed up for it... howver a recipe in which the star ingredient is merely used as a substitute isn't really the recipe for GYCO.... right ? so i raked up the internet looking for a recipe which wasn't too complicated and yet felt special enough for a challenge. and yesterday afternoon I finally bumped upon The One.... "Dorie's Applesauce Spice Bars." While the recipe looked wonderful by itself I thought a little tweaking would be nice. So i modified the ingredient list a bit and traded the original brown sugar glaze for a warm honey glaze... the result was fabulous.. we loved the spiced up soft moist Warm Applesauce Spice Bars.... 


and I am sure you will too when you try it......



now the recipe... I adapted the recipe of the cake from Something Sweet By Karen and the idea of glaze from Alex Guarnaschelli's Warm Grape Cake . The original cake recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking : From my home to yours. Thanks to Karen for publishing this recipe as part of Tuesdays with Dorie. It certainly rocks !

Warm Applesauce Spice Bars 
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours
 ingredients
  • for the cake
    • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1 tsp baking powder
    • 1/4 tsp baking soda
    • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
    • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
    • 1/4 tsp salt
    • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
    • 1 cup light brown sugar
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract
    • 1 Bartlett pear, peeled, cored and finely chopped
    • 1/2 oven dried red grapes or plum raisins (I used a 3:1 ratio of the two)
    • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 
  • for the glaze
    • 1/4 cup honey
    • 3/4 inch knob of ginger, peeled and freshly grated
    • 1/4-1/3 cup golden raisins
-
 the method
  • center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 350 degree F. butter a 9x13 inch baking pan, line the bottom with a parchment paper. butter the paper, dust the floor and sides of the pan with flour and tap off the excess. (in case you are like me and do not have a 9 x 13 inch pan, prepare your small cookie pan. it works. that is what i used.) 
  • whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt, sift the mixture and keep it aside.
  • in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan melt the butter over low heat. add the light brown sugar and  whisk the mixture until the sugar melts and a smooth batter is formed.
  • remove the saucepan from the heat and whisking continuously, add the eggs one at a time. whisk until the eggs are well incorporated into the batter, then add the applesauce and vanilla extract and whisk until a smooth uniform batter is formed. 
  • once all the wet ingredients are well-incorporated, using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, gently fold in the flour mixture, mixing only until they disappear. then mix in the pears, the raisins and nuts.
  • now scraping the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the surface with a rubber spatula and bake for 23-25 minutes until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (for me this happened exactly after 23 minutes.)
  • transferring the baking pan to a rack, let the cake cool completely. once the cake has cooled completely, after about 30-45 minutes, slice the cake into 2-1/4 x 1-1/2 inch bars and go ahead and prepare the glaze.
  • for the glaze, add the honey to a small saute pan and holding the pan over low heat, bring it to a light simmer. once the honey bubbles and turns light brown, add the freshly grated ginger and golden raisins to the pan. saute for another 20-30  seconds and then drizzle the honey glaze over the sliced bars and serve and enjoy with milk, tea or a scoop of ice-cream !

So that was my awesome Warm Applesauce Spice Bar for GYCO Applesauce...
Hope you enjoyed the recipe and will try it while apples and pears are still flooding your local grocery store. So much for today. Have a great week !


I shall be sharing this with the following food events...

15 comments:

  1. Yum! i love all of the flavors in these bars. great choice for #GYCO!

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  2. These look beautiful and delicious!

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  3. The glaze on top was a wonderful idea!

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  4. Apples and pears and spice always seem to announce the arrival of fall and I love the sound of these bars - a comforting way to enjoy the abundance of fall flavors...

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  5. I love the spice in these bars!

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  6. Spicing it up are we?! Gotta love this recipe- oh yum! Thanks for joining us in the kitchen again!

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  7. These bars look so moist I can smell the apples from your recipe. Thanks for sharing yet another wonderful recipe with us on foodie friday.

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  8. Thanks for sharing your awesome recipe at Inspire Me Monday!
    Congrats - you are one of this week's featured guests at this week's party at

    Create With Joy
    http://create-with-joy.com

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  9. These look delicious! Especially with all the fruit in it. Thanks for bringing it by Foodie Friday

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  10. I just love your Warm Applesauce Spice Bars, they will be so moist and delicious. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and have a great week!
    Miz Helen

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  11. Sounds fabulous! I love baked good with applesauce in them.

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  12. Hello my fellow #GYCO competitor!
    I'm hopping around to check out the competition and these look so good... good luck! :)
    Ang, Juggling Act Mama

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  13. This is a fantastic recipe and thanks so much for sharing it with us. Hope to see you again real soon at Full Plate Thursday!
    Miz Helen

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Thanks for stopping by. It was nice having you here. Have a good day.

Take care and come back soon.
Best, Tanusree

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