Applesauce Bars with Raisins and Frosting

Ahhh.... you saw that title and thought I lost my mind, didn't you? Frosting? I mean seriously, how the heck can I post a recipe with frosting?? Hm...... Well, you'll just have to read on to see.......

I adapted this recipe from Semi Homemade Mom's Raisin Applesauce Bars and Caramel Frosting. I hope you'll go check out her blog - lots of great recipes!

 

Ingredients:

Cake (Bars)
1/4 cup butter, softened, and a little butter to grease your baking dish,
1/2 cup coconut sugar or maple sugar (or a mixture of the two)
1 pasture egg
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup raisins

Frosting
*** The frosting is not a chocolate frosting--it looks brown because of the coconut sugar used but you could easily make it chocolate if that's your thing by adding a tablespoon or two of cocoa powder.
3 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. whole milk or cream or half and half (plus you may need a tablespoon or two extra)
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1 cup total powdered "sugar" (I combined 1/3 cup each of maple sugar, unrefined cane sugar, and coconut sugar in my Magic Bullet and blended until powdered, about 20 to 30 seconds)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

How To:
1. Batter - wet ingredients: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x8 baking dish. In a medium bowl, combine butter, coconut/maple sugar, and egg and beat about 30 sec to a minute. Then stir in the applesauce.

2. Batter - dry ingredients and combine: In another medium bowl, combine flours, baking soda, and pumpkin pie spice. Then gradually stir dry mixture into the wet mixture until well combined. Add raisins and stir to mix.

3. Bake: Pour into your prepared baking dish and bake for about 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the middle is clean when removed. Allow to cool.

4. Frosting: Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Add milk (or cream) and coconut sugar. Increase heat to medium and bring to a boil. Stir constantly and cook another minute. Remove from heat, cool slightly. In a medium bowl, combine the powdered "sugar" with the buttercream mixture and vanilla and beat until mixed well. At this point, you may want to add another tablespoon or two of milk/ cream to reach your desired frosting consistency.

5. Bring it all together: Pour frosting on top of your cooled applesauce bars and spread. Slice and serve.

Comments:
This serves about 9 to 12 people reasonably, depending on the size of your bars (the size of the bars in the pictures would be from 9 bars cut). It is a very sweet treat and the bars are incredibly moist and delicious. I used homemade applesauce that I had on hand but you could also use store bought, just try to get organic and make sure there are no weird added ingredients.

 

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This post was shared at Scratch Cookin' Tuesday.