Don’t be fooled by the name…. applesauce may not sound exciting but WOW can it make a scrumptious sweet treat! This is an easy recipe for moist applesauce bars with warm spices and a gooey vanilla icing!
These bars taste similar to pumpkin bars but without the pumpkin or the cream cheese frosting. Instead, you will enjoy a vanilla icing that tastes just like the icing on a cinnamon roll! We make these yummy bars all year round but they do serve as the perfect fall treat (especially if you have homemade cinnamon applesauce). Serve them for a snack, at breakfast, or as a dessert. We have been known to eat the whole pan in a day!
How to Make Applesauce Bars
These delicious bars are composed of simple ingredients you may likely have in the cupboard and refregerator already. For the dry ingredients of the bars themselves you will need: all purpose flour, salt, baking soda, brown sugar, and pumpkin spice. The wet ingredients include: egg, butter, applesauce. The frosting ingredients will be covered below.
Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease the 9 x 13 cake pan with butter or cooking spray. Use a small bowl to combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. In a medium to large mixing bowl combine together egg, brown sugar, and butter. You can use an electric mixer on low speed to medium speed but be careful not to over mix the eggs. Now add the flour mixture to the applesauce mixture. You can add a 1/2 cup of raisens and/or walnuts if you so desire.
Put the bars in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and a knife or toothpick comes out of the center clean or almost clean.
How to Make Vanilla Icing for Applesauce Bars
The frosting consists of powdered sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla extract. After the bars have cooled completely on a wire rack, mix up the frosting! In a medium to large bowl (preferably with an electric mixer) combine the powdered sugar with the milk. Once combined add the milk and vanilla until smooth and free of bumps.
The best part of this process is licking the beaters! With a spatula spread the icing evenly over the bars. Cut, serve, and enjoy! the cooled bars in an airtight container at room temperature for a couple days or in the fregerator for up to 5 days. You can freeze these bars in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Adaptations
- DOUBLE THE RECIPE: These are made in a 9×13 cake pan. This simple recipe can easily be doubled in a cookie sheet/jelly roll pan to have 40 servings instead of 20 servings.
- Omit the frosting and do a dusting of powdered sugar on top instead. You may find it is sweet enough without the frosting or be in search for a light dessert.
- THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF SPICE: Pumpkin pie spice can be swapped out for apple pie spice (pumpkin pie spice has cloves where apple pie spice has ground cardamom). If you have neither of these on hand you can simply substitute in 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon + 1/4 teas. of two of the following: ginger, allspice, cloves, or nutmeg. You could do 100 percent ground cinnamon as well, if that is all you have, but I would not do a full teaspoon of any of the other spices mentioned, only cinnamon.
- APPLESAUCE: Use store bought sweetened or unsweetened applesauce; or cinnamon applesauce. Homemade applesauce that is not too runny would be delicious! Check your local farmers market or apple orchard for homemade applesauce as well.
This is the perfect treat for a quick fix for your sweet tooth, easier than apple pie! I love these easy to make applesauce bars with vanilla icing on a plate…. next to a cold glass of milk, cup of coffee, or some hot apple cider! I hope you make them, I know you will enjoy them!
More Easy to Make Desserts Below ……
Easy Cherry Chocolate Cake (with chocolate ganache frosting)
Easy Peach Cobbler Dump Cake (with white cake mix)
Best Monster Cookie Bars (without butter)
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
– Albert Einstein
Easy to Make – APPLESAUCE BARS – with vanilla icing
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup applesauce sweetened or unsweetened
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teas. baking soda
- 1/2 teas. salt
- 1 teas. pumpkin pie spice
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tbsp butter melted
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1 teas. vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup raisins and/or walnuts optional
Instructions
- Grease a 9×13 cake pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium to large mixing bowl combine the brown sugar with the egg and softened butter. (You can mix by hand or with an electric mixer on low but do not over mix the egg.) Next, stir in the applesauce.
- In a small to medium sized bowl mix the flour, salt, soda, and pumpkin spice.
- Now, stir the flour mixture into the applesauce mixture until well blended.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Make sure the bars are golden brown and that a knife or toothpick comes out mostly clean to clean when inserted into the center of the bars.
- Cool in the pan, preferably on a wire rack.
- FROSTING: in a medium sized bowl combine the powdered sugar and butter until smooth (preferably with an electric mixer). Add in the milk and vanilla until well combined.
- Spread the icing over the cooled bars evenly. Cut, serve, and enjoy!
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