By Quiet week after Easter. The Methodist luncheon check arrived in the mail Tuesday. Cody had his probation closeout meeting with Marcus on Monday afternoon and was officially discharged. The apartment was back on its normal rhythm by Wednesday and Brayden (now thirty weeks old, almost seven months) was crawling for real for the first time on Saturday afternoon.
The glazed apple-maple blondies are a one-pan dessert — blondie batter (butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, baking powder, salt) studded with diced Granny Smith apple and pecans, baked in a square pan for thirty minutes, finished with a maple-and-powdered-sugar glaze poured warm over the warm bars. The bars are dense, sweet, slightly tart from the apple, and the maple glaze gives them a thin lacquer finish that holds for two days at room temperature.
The technique question with blondies is keeping them dense without going dry. The fix is brown sugar (not white) for the structure and the moisture, melted butter (not creamed) for the chew, a slight underbake (twenty-eight minutes instead of thirty-two) to keep the center fudgy. The apple goes in diced small so it disperses through the bars without creating moisture pockets. The pecans go in roughly chopped.
Sunday I made a 9x9 pan. Dustin ate three bars Sunday night. Mama got two in the freezer mail-pack I send to Sapulpa most weeks. Brayden had a tiny dab of glaze on his finger (no bar — he is too young for the bar) and approved of the sweetness as a concept.
Glazed Apple-Maple Blondies
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 16
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups peeled and finely diced apple (about 2 small apples, such as Honeycrisp or Gala)
- For the maple glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1–2 tablespoons whole milk (to consistency)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and line with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two sides for easy lifting.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup until smooth and well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt directly to the wet mixture. Stir with a spatula until just combined — do not overmix.
- Fold in the apples. Gently fold the diced apple into the batter until evenly distributed. The batter will be thick.
- Bake. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 28–32 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Do not overbake — you want them fudgy in the center. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before glazing.
- Make the glaze. Whisk together the powdered sugar, maple syrup, milk, and pinch of salt until smooth and pourable. Add milk one teaspoon at a time to reach a thick but drizzleable consistency.
- Glaze and slice. Drizzle the glaze evenly over the cooled blondies. Let the glaze set for 10 minutes before using the parchment overhang to lift the bars out of the pan. Slice into 16 squares and serve.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 215 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Carbs: 37g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 85mg