BUTTERY APPLE SPICE BARS with a BUTTERY PLUM APPLE SAUCE@ BAkING W DORIE@HOLIDAY EXCHANGE

 A bit back ,when i joined BWD , i was excited to try Chaya's choice of Bake ,Apple bars galore!
Actually from the day i know i have to bake this , i have been having cravings!
Honestly!!

Ofcourse i love all of DOrie's recipe but this one somehow fitted into the thanksgiving moment!
It has Apple and Spice and all things nice, u cant go wrong here ,can u!

If u love Dorie's recipes, u must join in BWD, barely any rules , u can bake when u can , and its so muc fun to bake along together, u'll be welcomed with warm arms into this small group that has lods of space for u all!

 Love everything about them specially since i not only had some applesauce but also wanted make some more with this recipe i baked.
Ever since i baked this Crumble i love Apple sauce in every variety!



We have to begin with Apple sauce allright coz besides we rarely findin this on our store shelves,this is something i love to make, absolutely easy and delicious too!

Whether its a host of Rasberry Jello recipes  or delicious Apple sauce with berries or another lovely Big Oven recipe or jus a rasberry Apple sauce cake or if the word Grandma somehow enhances recipes for you,like it does for me or maybe u jus want to buy some good berry applesauce.

So lets get going with the apple sauce , where begins all this deliciousness.

 U need to use ur fav tools and peel and core the washed apples first!

Tools make a pretty picture and help u go thru easily and quickly, not that u want to hurry up work so enjoyable as this.

The plums , they dont get peeled , jus well washed , thats how i got that deep pink hue, i begun with 1 plum but touched 7:-)
And chopped .U need to toss all the chopped fruit in lime juice , zest and a bit of both the sugars and keep aside.

 Now heat a pan / pressure cooker {see tips and recipe below} , and add all the sugar with some lime and apple juice , a squeeze each, and as the sugar colors ,add in all the Kerrygold Butter  ur using.
I managed to take it to the lite at this stage so i could take a pic , jus for u, see how muc i love u and i love the Kerrygold Butter melting into the bubbling sugar too, imagine when all this caramelly goodness coats the fruit.

Also spiced with a curl of cinnamon , a clove or 2 , a cardamon and a few more goodies , this one rocks!
Add a berry or 2 for color and u have pots of yummy sauce!

 I loveee the pink of this Apple sauce and the richness the Kerrygold Butter adds, yummy anytime..

 Recipe for the Kerrygold Buttery Apple Plum Pink sauce with love from Mia.

Apples- 2 large, 1 smaller , 1 small-peeled , cored , chopped
7 california plums ,chopped but not peeled
Brown sugar-1/4 cup & some more
White Sugar-1/4 Cup & some more
20 gramsKerrygold Butter to 55 grams Kerrygold Butter
400 ml apple juice sweet
Whole Cinnamon/cardomon/a clove
Lavendor
Fresh Lemon Juice

~~~Use different varieties of apples, love the sweet and tart that come together so beautifully for suprise bites.
~~~i began with 1 plum but loved the hue so muc that ended adding 7 luscious plums, some small ,some large.I was happy i did.

~~~Sugar, in any combi, can be decreased or increased or even honey or splenda subbed in~~~
~~~Kerrygold Butter, this is a buttery sauce remember,  u can add anything from 20grams to 55 grams , lemme be honest , i added more.
~~~apple juice is a MUST addition to take this sauce to appley heights u'll totally love, i think apple cider ,boiled cider or apple cider powder would be a fantastic substitute.
~~~For spices ,anything u love goes, cinnamon, a clove or 2, cardomon, and ofcourse vanilla. I sure did think of rose water and saffron too , it would be lovely to look at too ,but will have to leave out the plums for that.

~~~Now i did this in a pressure cooker , but u can in ur fav pan too, i love what the pressure cooker does to this , cooks in its own steam& heat + seals in the moisture and flavor , but u have to cook it a little later , opened , if the liquid is too muc.
~~~

• Wash,Peel , core and chop apples to different sizes , this i do for texture and for the fine pieces to mash up during the cooking.
• Chop the plums too , but do not peel them , so yeah u have to wash them well.
  
• Zest some lime atop that , squeeze in some juice too , sprinkle a little of the 2 sugars and toss.
• Heat a pan/ pressure cooker, and add in the sugars , lime juice {half a lime is fine here} , a tbh of the apple juice /cider and twirl around till u have a bit of color.
• Now is the time to plop in the  Kerrygold Butter , whether i want to use a blob or a large pat, get that in now.
• Twirl the pan around till u have some nice gooey caramely color and toss the apples and stir around till all the apples are well covered with the buttery goodness. ahh, u'll have a heady fragrance hit u , a fragrance u'll love , a buttery appley caramelly aroma.
• Enjoy for a bit:-)
• Now add in all the rest of the ingredients, ie the spices ur using , some more lemon zest if u want , and yup the apple juice to bring it all together.
• Bring it to a nice boil and simmer away till its all nice and mushy , if ur using a pressure cooker ,i cooked it under pressure on a very low flame for almost half an hour, then after opening had to cook it a bit more to dry out the liquid.
• i love texture a bit of apple gooeyness so i didn dry it all out and the whole thing jellies out later.
• But then if u want a smooth sauce , u either use a blender in the pot or a rice mill.
• I left the texture and the smoothness of the sauce with the soft bites of differently textured apples 
• is a pleasure to eat and the fragrance will be gorgeous.

 Now there is lods u can do with this sauce besides eating it rite from the jar with ur fav spoon...

 And  we are going to bake some delicious , Apple sauce spice bars too with Kerrygold Butter.

 These are Heart shaped bars , yeah i used my heart molds to bake them for 2 reasons, number 1 ,u get pretty heart bars and number 2 , when u pour the yummy caramelly glaze over , no wastage!!

If it aint enough that these bars are great rite outa the oven ,with some apple sauce , they get even better the next day..moister , deeper flavor and softer!
Must be all those apples and caramello glaze and yeah i put a layer of the apple sauce below the caramelly glaze!

Loads of warm spices oh so rite for the season are in here too,and they are so good that u will always wanna have a jar of apple sauce so u can put these together any time u have a craving!

 Infact i want to call these my one sauce pan ,apple bars!


Now how do i make apple spice Kerrygold Buttery bars ,all the more buttery without changing the recipe?{ok i did add some more butter}
By adding in this gorgeous extract ofcourse!
And as if the goodness of apple ,spice and all things nice wasnt enough, there is buttery vanilla too!
And lods of Vanilla , added in in the ,melted butter.

Ahh, bliss!

Am sure u wanna begin as soon as we can , and lets do it!!
Dont worry , will give u the link to the recipe too! And tell u any little changes along the way!
First u need to preheat the oven and butter the molds really well , yeah hearts coz i m having heart bars remember.

 U need to whisk some flour.

 And whisk it together with 1 1/4 cup AP flour, 1 tsp BPowder and 1/4 tsp  b soda.

 and grate in some cinnamon too , all spice berries would be fantastic but i had none so added a clove or 2!

 Now the sauce pan , my fav Pink sauce pan , i loveee Pink!!!
A nice big fat blob of Kerrygold Butter in a pink sauce pan , so cute!! Dont look at my quantities coz i halved the recipe , coz these bars are totally addictive , ok hearts.
And Kerrygold Butter will totally rock!!

Melt it and time to add some brown goodness in:-)

And whisk away ...on slow simmering heat....

 And when its done and caramelly , take it off the heat.

I let mine cool a bit coz i was busy with other things but u can go ahead whisk in the eggs, one by one, really well , in the same sauce pan.

 Add in the apple sauce and brandy and whisk to blend well.

Whisk till well blended and now shift to working with a Spatula, pink goes well {:-)},fold in the flour.
U need to apples and nuts later ,i added in a yellow apple first:-)

 And instead of raisins i doubled the amount of pecans,lightly toasted in the oven already pre heating and chopped roughly.

All ready to bake ........till a knife inserted in comes clean.

Salted Butter Caramel Glaze

Not only are these bars a quickie to put by , but so is the topping, which u do as they bake!
And u stick to the one pan here too , rinse and wash the same pan and lets go get that topping done!
A delicious topping of lite cream , more Kerrygold Butter {always a good thing } ,salted, brown sugar and lite corn syrup with vanilla ofcourse.
Though i halved the actual recipe i stuck to the full quantity of glaze and was so happy i did!
+ the mold caught on all the drips :-)
Oh these are so addictive that u can finish them in one go and since its the week of lods of food , cut them down , they'll be gone even before  can share them.
Vanilla and Kerrygold Butter the fairy tale couple.

 Hidden under that glaze is some more Apple sauce , yeah i microwaved some Pink Buttery Apple sauce and dot all the Heart bars with a spoon of each before i covered them in Galze.

Now for the recipe u gotta hop by Chaya's super delish blog here and u will also love to read the story how her non glaze eating hubby totally fell in love with these, aint suprised a bit.

Check out Grapefruit of Needful Things     for a list of bakers and check out the other applesauce spice bars.  If you would like to join us, let grapefruit know.  We would love to have you.  

Please hang on a bit , i have another update for u...
Gift buyin idea and some news:-)
I always loved Susan @food blogga An now i do even more :-)
Her new cookbook, Recipes Every Man Should Know? rocks!

 It's a little, black book of over 60 easy-to-make, manly recipes. It's an ideal stocking stuffer for XMAS at only $9.95.