An Exchange of Goods

A coworker of mine has a fun little agreement with me that began in April. I made a butterscotch cake for the Keeneland horse race for a group of people I barely knew (as I was invited by a friend, yet knew nobody else!). One guy in particular was commenting on how great the cake was and told me that his mother makes her own apple sauce and has been doing so for years.

Since then he has brought me a jar of his mom's apple sauce with one catch: I have to make something with it, and as payment I get to keep the rest of the jar of apple sauce for my own enjoyment. I happily agreed!

I've baked muffins for him the first time around but because of our schedules never really working out with one another, it wasn't until last week that he could get another batch for me. The muffins I made last time weren't that great, so I decided to take a different route: bars.

Apple Oat Bars

Makes 20 bite-sized bars.

Based on this recipe.

Filling:

3/4 cup apple sauce

1 cup dried apple rings, chopped roughly

Base/Topping:

1.5 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup brown sugar Splenda blend

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 tsp vanilla

2 egg whites

1/4 cup melted margarine

1/4 cup apple sauce

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x8 baking dish.

Mix together filling ingredients and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix remaining dry ingredients. Add melted butter, followed by all remaining wet ingredients.

Press half of the oat mixture into the bottom of the pan, as evenly as possible. Spread filling over crust. Top with remaining oat mixture, pressing evenly so it covers all of the filling.

Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden. Cool before cutting.

Hello Dolly!

I've seen so many recipes for Hello Dolly bars, so I created my own version for a party last weekend. It ended up being more like a chewy candy bar because I used what I had on hand.

The recipes I'd seen call for coconut, chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips; I used coconut, M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, and Heath Bar crumbles. Sugar, sugar, sugar, and more sugar! I also drizzled some dark chocolate on top of them to make them look prettier.

(Oh, don't forget that the whole mess is covered in condensed milk, which turns to dulce de leche when baked!)

Here's the basic recipe from Smitten Kitchen - I definitely recommend giving these a try! Even my ooey gooey horribly unhealthy version was awesome enough to quickly disappear at my friend's party! They were surprised, however, because I generally bake/cook healthy things... and these bars were anything but! I didn't bother calculating the nutrition information until a couple of days later because I knew I wouldn't be able to enjoy them knowing how bad they were!

But, you only live once, and it isn't like I ate the whole batch myself!

My tip for you tonight: when baking something decadent, overly sweet, or generally unhealthy -- it's a treat! Enjoy it... with friends!

In other news, I created a Twitter account for this blog, so please follow me!