Applesauce Spice Bars

 Over the past few months, I have been trying a lot of new recipes. This one, for Applesauce Spice Bars, used ingredients that I had on hand. It has a mild spice flavor, with the ground cinnamon and allspice. For my taste, I would have doubled the cinnamon and allspice, and added some other spices - perhaps ground cloves and ginger. 

I did not make the frosting with the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. This would have made it more of a dessert bar rather than a breakfast bar. 

Olivia liked the flavor of this, but didn't care for the raisins. I liked the recipe and would make it again with more spices. 

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup applesauce

1 cup chopped walnuts (I didn't use them)

1 cup raisins

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter with brown sugar until light and fluffy. 

Add egg; beat well. Add flour mixture alternately with applesauce; mix well. Stir in walnuts and raisins. Spread batter into a greased, 9x13 inch baking pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla; blend well. Spread over warm surface. Cool completely; cut into bars.