TWD--Applesauce Spice Bars

Today's Tuesday's With Dorie recipe for Applesauce Spice Bars was chosen by Karen of Something Sweet by Karen.  You can get the recipe on the link to her blog or if you don't have Dorie's wonderful baking book, GET IT! 

The applesauce spice bars were simple to make and pretty good.  There were only a few things I didn't love about them, but still, we liked them enough to eat them.  I thought there were too many raisins, in which their chewiness overpowered the apple flavor.  But funny I say that, I also didn't care for the bits of apple.  I would have just liked more applesauce and less chunk.  Although I loved the nuts.  So, if I needed to make a yummy fall treat, I would probably make these again, but leave out the raisins and possibly the apples, increasing the applesauce.  I also would maybe add a bit more cinnamon.  The sugary glaze was good, but I wonder how--no, I know how good these would be with a cream cheese frosting.  Ooh. 

Here's a quick photo run down of some things for you.

I hadn't really looked at this week's recipe much, but knew it involved apples, and I saw these crisp little beauties at the farmer's market this past Saturday, so I picked some up.   A sign near the apples at the market said they were "Dutchess Macoun apples".  Never heard of them.  But the guy selling them said they are a sweet apple.  They are actually quite crisp with just the right amount of sweetness.  I don't like tart apples too much, whereas, Kevin only likes tart apples.  This TWD recipe only calls for one apple, but I thought they were a little small, so I used two small apples.  I LOVED chopping them perfect equal sizes with my Vidalia Chop Wizard---

I always line baking pans with tin foil and then lightly spray it with cooking spray (I also floured this one, just because Dorie suggested buttering and flouring the pan, but I'll bet it would have been fine with just cooking spray.)  Everything always lifts out easily with the edges of the foil and I've never had anything stick.  Since I like nuts so much, I used 3/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup and I toasted the pecans first.  I also did not use the alcohol, but plumped up the raisins in some warm water, so just for fun, I added 1 tablespoon of the raisin water in place of the alcohol.  I only baked my bars for 20 minutes. 

I read on the P&Q's to double the glaze, so I did.  I forgot that I was out of corn syrup, so I used agave nectar.  The glaze seemed perfect to me, although a little too sugary for my liking.  What?  Did I say that?  Well, as I mentioned, I think I just would have liked a cream cheese icing on top.  I wonder if the caramelly glaze just took too much of the apple spice taste away for me.  And because I like to totally contradict myself, I had to top these with something else sweet.  ICE CREAM!

I've seen cinnamon ice cream and snickerdoodle ice cream floating around the blogosphere lately, so I decided to whip up Lori's version from RecipeGirl.com.  I seem to like the ice creams that aren't full of eggy custard (although some of those are DELISH!).  I supposed I like the simplicity of the ones that don't need to be cooked on the stove and then chilled.  I slightly adapted Lori's recipe, but only because of the amounts of cream, half and half and milk that I had on hand.

SNICKERDOODLE ICE CREAM, adapted by Katrina (My changes are in red.)
www.RecipeGirl.com

½ cup granulated sugar  (I only used 1/4 cup sugar)
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon  (I used a good heaping 1/2 teaspoon)
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups heavy whipping cream  (I used 1  1/2 cups cream)
1½ cups half and half cream  (I used 1/2 cup half and half and 1  1/2 cups whole milk)
1½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine sugars with spices. Add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth. Pour the cold mixture immediately into ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions (usually about 30 minutes.)

2. Scoop ice cream into a freezer- safe container. Freeze.

We tried to have the neighbors over for refreshments as I had previously made the blueberry oat bars and Dorie's blueberry sour cream ice cream (see my last post) as well as these applesauce spice bars and snickerdoodle ice cream, but their two year old was sick, so we packed up a bunch of the goodies and took it over to them.  Including this big cup of ice cream as well as some of the blueberry.  (Good to get these things out of OUR house! ;)

Thanks for the great, simple ice cream recipe, Lori!

And just because I can't end a post without any pictures of the boys, look what Mr. Sam did on Sunday, moments before it was time to get dressed to go to church.  He came up the stairs with that look on his face like he knew he'd be in trouble.  The boys were downstairs only feet away from him and hadn't even noticed what he was doing.  Sigh!  (This is Sam's new "get that camera out of my face look", you'll see more of it in the future.)

Yes, that's the look, Sam.  "What did you do, MR?!"  Hint--look at his left wrist.  No, that's not blood, he didn't cut himself.

Oh my goodness--this may be the cutest picture I've ever seen--look at those legs.  No, not the duck's. ;)  What is that on your left heel there, Sam-O?

"Where did you get a red marker from, Little Boy?"  Needless to say, he took a quick bath and we scrubbed.  No, it didn't all come off, you know those Crayola WASHABLE markers.  Yes, those.  Well, at least he hadn't gotten any on his face.

Ya'll come back soon this week, have I got one of the most delicious things ever to show you.  I'm not kidding.  HEAVEN!  See ya!