Apple-Cranberry Oatmeal Bars

Wooed by my grocery store's clever Fall display, I made it home from my last shopping trip with a half peck of Gala apples. In our house, apples get eaten frequently by our toddler. However, even with him eating one or two a day, I knew I needed to start baking or cooking with them to use them up.

When I was making these, Sage said "Aren't we gonna, like, get fat from all this baking you've been doing?" I reminded him that we only eat a little and give the rest to someone else. Well, after tasting these, I'd better come up with some really healthy dinners the next few nights, because these won't be making it into the possession of any of our loved ones! Sage even declared these as possibly the best thing I've ever baked.

These were so tempting, we couldn't even wait last night for them to properly cool before sampling. Then we had to wrap them up and force ourselves to go to bed. Warm, they don't hold their shape well, but would be perfect for topping with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and eating with a spoon. For me, these are definitely a dessert and not a grab-and-go breakfast. They are quite sweet (although the sweet taste is much stronger cooled than warm) so when I make these again, I will reduce the sugar, add another apple or two, and I am pretty sure I could use whole wheat flour and they'd still taste amazing. A great thing about these bars is you could switch out the filling, using different types of fresh and/or dried fruit, or even jarred chunky applesauce, as the recipe originally suggests. I will definitely be experimenting with this one.

adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

2 apples suitable for baking, peeled, cored and diced

1 cinnamon stick

2 tbsp water

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup quick cooing oats

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 baking soda

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries

dash of ground cloves

Combine apples, cinnamon stick and water in a saucepan. Cover and simmer until apples are very tender, about 20 minutes. If there is excess water, drain most off. Remove stick, and mash apples with fork. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix flour, oats, sugar and baking soda in a meduim bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (I don't have a pastry cutter, so I just pulsed it in the food processor and other than the oats gettting slightly chopped up, it worked just fine.) Reserve a half of cup of crumb mixture. Press remaining into an ungreased 11x7 baking pan.

Add cranberries and cloves to apples and stir to mix well. Spread over top of crumb layer. Sprinkle with reserved crumbs. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown. Cool and cut into bars.