TWD: Applesauce Spice Bars

Our host, Karen of Something Sweet by Karen, choose Applesauce Spice Bars. The recipe for this week reminded me of fall so much. How could it not? We had apples, applesauce, and allspice. Even though it is still summer in Dallas, I was eager to start eating from the foods I associate with fall. It is after all my favorite season!

I loved how quickly these were to mix and get to the oven. You do everything on the stove top so there is little need to dirty a ton of dishes. I go through too many dirty dishes as it is, cutting back is always a plus!

I left off the icing because Dorie doesn't recommend freezing the bars with it. Instead, I topped them with extra pecans. With just me, even half of a batch is too much, so most of them will end up frozen. And being slightly selfish, I didn't want to share these goodies with the guys at work!

Another small change I made was to use dark brown sugar instead of the light. I prefer the flavor of the dark over the brown and I also tend to keep that in the cabinets more often. I also used dried cranberries because I had those in the cabinet as well. And the apple/cranberry combination is simply a classic.

Despite it still being firmly a (hot hot!) Texas summer at the moment, these bars were a delightful taste of fall. They were bursting with fruit and nuts and were very moist. Once we get closer to fall, I look forward to bringing these out to wow friends and family. In fact, I think these would be perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course, the icing will definitely be on then! You can't have the holidays with out it!

I am currently camera less (common on Fuji! release my new camera!!) so we have another iPhone picture again.

You can find the recipe at Something Sweet by Karen. To see more Applesauce Spice Bars, check out the TWD blogroll here!