My Contribution to Thanksgiving

As much as I love to cook and bake, I did not host Thanksgiving this year. We always have the big meal at my in-laws' house. Of course I always offer to bring something and normally end up taking a main dish and a dessert. Well this year when I asked what I could bring I was told that all the main dishes were taken care of and that I could bring a dessert. Every other year there is always pecan pie and sweet potato pie at the in-laws and then I bring some other dessert. So I decided not to make I pie since I assumed there would be pie. I had seen these apple blondies on a couple food blogs recently and had heard rave reviews from everyone that had tried them. So I figured these would be a good option. Well, there ended up being no pecan pie at Thanksgiving dinner and I was disappointed in that. Safe to say I'll be making one of those soon to satisfy my craving. But the blondies turned out good anyway! I think they are the best blondies I've ever had! I took the advice of others that had made these and didn't make the brown sugar frosting recipe for these blondies. Instead I made up my own frosting recipe. Everyone loved them!

Apple Blondies with Brown Sugar Frosting

Blondies:
2/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup chopped peeled apples
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (i did not add nuts)


Blondies:
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until thick and smooth, about 3 minutes. Combine flour, baking pwder and salt. Add to butter mixture on low speed, mixing until blended. Stir in apples, cinnamon and nuts, mixing well. Spread evenly in greased 9x13 pan.

Bake in Preheated oven at 350 degrees until set and golden, 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on rack.

Confectioners' Sugar Frosting
(Icing recipe I made)

1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl combine all ingredients and whisk together. Add more milk if needed. The icing should be smooth but thick enough to coat a spoon. Drizzle over cooled blondies just before serving.


*This is the original frosting recipe. Others said it was just too sweet for these blondies so I made a different recipe.

*Brown Sugar Frosting
In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar and milk. Bring mixture just to a boil then remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm. Stir in the confectioner's sugar, mixing until smooth. Spread evenly over bar. Let stand until frosting is firm enough to cut. Cut into bars or squares