Last Day of Summer & Apple Streusel Bars

I can't believe the summer has come to an end for us!  It has been unusually cool for Oklahoma, and we  just had to spend our last day of summer outside this morning!

Love my happy and carefree girls.  

Although there can be a LOT of fighting, pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth in our house...these girls truly do love and care for one another!  It's such a beautiful thing to watch them grow up together.  

I also have to share this recipe.  I have been craving apple pie, apple crisp and apple oatmeal lately.  These are wonderful.  They have a wonderful, flaky, pastry-like crust and a nice crumble topping.  I did make a few changes to the recipe which I will post in italics!  I hope y'all have a wonderful rest of your summer!

Apple Streusel Bars

Our Best Bites

Sweet Pastry:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 egg, beaten

Apple Filling:

1/2 cup sugar (i used 1/4)

1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon (i used 2 teaspoons)

4 cups sliced, peeled apples (i used gala and fuji)

Glaze: (i cut the glaze recipe in half)

2 cups powdered sugar

3 Tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon almond extract (i used vanilla)

Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 9x13 baking dish (i used a 9x9 to have thicker bars...just increased baking time by about 10 minutes).

For the crust mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl.  Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until you have pea-sized crumbles.  Stir in the beaten egg.  Gently press about 2/3 of the mixture onto the bottom of the dish.

To prepare the filling toss the apples with the sugar, flour and cinnamon.  Spread over the crust.

Sprinkle the remaining pastry mixture over the apples and bake for 40 minutes until bubbly and lightly browned.

Allow to cool completely and prepare the glaze.  Whisk the powdered sugar, milk and extract until blended.  Drizzle over the bars and allow the glaze to set.

ENJOY!!!

mini apple pies

I love making food "cute".  I made these special little pies for my sweet little girls!   The only thing that would make these little pies taste better would be a scoop of bluebell vanilla homemade ice cream....

Mini Apple Pies

Recipe from "she wears many hats"

What you'll need...

1 pastry crust recipe (I used pillsbury pie crust)

1/2 cup butter

 4 apples diced

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

for the topping...

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup rolled oats

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon flour

Instructions:

Preaheat the oven to 425.

Roll the dough out to 1/8" thick and cut into circles that are a little larger than the cupcake pan circles. 

Line the greased muffin tin with the dough circles.  Bake these shells in the oven for 10 minutes or utnil the shell is no longer raw but pale.  Remove and reduce the heat to 350.  

In a saucepan melt the butter.  Add the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt.  Coat the apples well and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Scoop a little of the mixture into each pastry shell.  Mix the topping ingredients together and sprinkle on top of each pie.  

Bake for 25-30 minutes until slightly golden brown.  

ENJOY!