Oatmeal Apple Butter Squares

The girls and I have followed Jessica Merchant of How Sweet Eats on her food blog since the beginning. So when we saw she had a cookbook coming out we knew we were going to be buying it. The day after Seriously Delish arrived Sam decided to make two of the 150 recipes in the cookbook with another 15 bookmarked to make soon. These bars did not disappoint with a hint of peanut butter and an extra caramel drizzle on top.  If you are wondering what to do with your apple butter besides spread it on toast give these bars a try.  The whole wheat flour can easily be substituted with white all purpose flour or you can do 1/2 of each I would guess. The cookbook has a little bit of everything with 8 different sections from breakfast to snack time items, stuff to sip on, salads, soups and vegetable sides. The other dish we tried so far was Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps and we loved them. The dipping sauce was amazing and we will be using the sauce on other things soon.

Ingredients:
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond milk (1/3 cup in original recipe)
1 cup apple butter

Crumble:
1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup loosely packed brown sugar
2 tbsp whole wheat flour
2 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract

Drizzle: (I added - not in original recipe)
15 caramel squares
1 tbsp milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray and 8 x 8 pan with PAM.  In a small bowl combine the oat, flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add peanut butter and brown sugar.  Beat on medium speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.  Add vanilla extract and beat the mixture until combined.

With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients.  Slowly add the milk and continue to mix until a dough forms.  Remove the dough from the bowl and press it into the baking dish.

Spread the apple butter over the top of the dough.

For the crumble combine the oats, brown sugar and flour in a bowl.  Add the butter and vanilla extract and crumble it together with your fingers until the butter is distributed.

Sprinkle the mixture over the apple butter.

Bake for 25 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and let the bars cool completely before cutting into squares.

If you want to add a little more sweetness to it drizzle caramel sauce over the top.  Prepare caramel sauce by melting caramels with a little milk and stir either over the stove or in the microwave.

Enjoy!!




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