Oatmeal Apple Pie Bars (Secret Recipe Club)

I'm delighted to be participating in The Secret Recipe Club this week. What a fun initiative! Each member is secretly assigned a participating food blogger to make a recipe from. You choose any recipe from the blog you are assigned, make or bake it, and blog about it on the date specified. My assigned blog was Yumsilicious Bakes. What could be more delicious than a blog dedicated to baked goods? 

Which brings me right to something that I've been bottling up for some time. Here it is. There are certain members (who shall remain nameless) of a certain household (which shall remain nameless). Who, in spite of the fact that their spouse is obsessed with cooking and baking ordinary but delicious foods. And who, in spite of the fact that their spouse avoids artificial ingredients, most packaged foods and white flour on most occasions. Insists that there is nothing quite as delicious as a Drake's Apple or Cherry Fruit Pie. 

So this has been bothering me for quite some time. Each time those Evil Pies make their way into my healthy pantry, alongside the whole grain oats, agave nectar, and coconut oil, a little part of me aches. But I have been powerless to do much about it. There's no arguing about taste.

Until last week, when I found a homemade replacement: These Oatmeal Pie Bars from Yumsilicious Bakes. Yes, they have sugar and plenty of butter. But they come from my kitchen. And I'm pretty sure they don't have Sodium Alginate or Mononitrate, which in my book is a good thing. 

Oatmeal Apple Pie Bars from Yumsilicious Bakes

FILLING

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
pinch of salt

CRUST
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 stick (8 oz.) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350*. Line a 9 inch square pan with parchment.

Meanwhile, make the filling. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add all of the remaining filling ingredients and cook, stirring often and apples begin to get tender, about 10 minutes. Add water if the filling seems too thick, a tbsp at a time. Set aside to cool, while you start on the crust.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, brown sugar and oats. Add the melted butter and incorporate well. Separate about 1 1/2 cups of the crust mixture and press it into the bottom of the pan.

Spoon the filling over the crust, trying to ensure a more or less single layer. Sprinkle on the remaining crust mixture.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the topping is light golden brown. Cool in the pan completely, and then cut into squares. Leave at room temperature for up to a day or so, or refrigerate for later in the week. 

Linking this up to Melt in Your Mouth Monday, Ultimate Recipe Swap, and Pennywise Platter Thursday.