Apple Peanut Butter Chip bars

Apples are consuming my mornings right now. Some sweet lady gave me boxes of free apples and I have been busy making apple chips and pies from the tart little McIntoshes. I also really love homemade applesauce but I like to use a sweeter apple for applesauce and so I have been busy baking and slicing. Oh how I love my peeler/slicer/corer. How would I survive through hundreds of apples without such a tool.

I actually like to make all my fruit pies during the late summer and fall and then freeze them for convenient use the rest of the year. But this morning I needed to take a break from pie baking (OK I still made one pie) and so I made my annual batch of these cake like bars that are so delicious when warm. They fill the senses with a taste of fall spices, warm apple and melt in your mouth peanut butter. They make a sweet but generally healthy after school snack or lunch box stuffer.

Recipe: I adapted this recipe from an apple bar recipe found at allrecipes.com

1/2 Cup melted butter

1/2 Cup fructose (or use 1 cup sugar)

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 Cup whole grain pastry flour (or 1 Cup all-purpose flour)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 dash nutmeg

1 Cup peeled apples, finely diced

1/4 Cup finely chopped pecans

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350 and grease and flour an 8x8 pan. In a large bowl cream melted butter, sugar and egg. Mix in egg and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda. cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well. Stir in apples and peanut butter chips. Spread batter into prepared pan and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.