Applesauce fudge bars

Usually I consult Pinterest or my favorite baking blogs to get recipe inspirations, but I can go old school for ideas as well. Lately, I've been flipping through my cookbooks for recipe inspirations, marking the ones that catch my eye. Dozens and dozens of Post-it notes later, I probably have enough "to-try" recipes for the next few years, so I might as well get started, right?

On Valentine's Day, my friend and I decided to bake. She had apples to get rid of and I had recipes to try, so we decided to make these applesauce fudge bars. I love brownies, but I used to think that I couldn't do much better than a boxed mix. After experimenting with several brownie recipes, I realized that wasn't true. This is one of the examples.

The recipe calls for applesauce, which we made from scratch as well because she had apples lying around to use. Mashing the apples to make sauce was harder and took longer than we thought. We ended up using a stainless steel water bottle to squish the apples into sauce. It took effort, but it ended up very tasty and we had tons left over after adding it to the recipe.

Besides the applesauce, the bars themselves ended up super yummy. It's always great to have brownies lying around when the sweet tooth hits.

Note about the recipe below: I didn't have my scale, so the recipe used volume measurements instead.

Applesauce fudge bars (makes 2 dozen bars)
Recipe adapted from Best-Loved Chocolate Recipes

• 3 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter (one stick)
• 2/3 cup of applesauce (recipe below)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of dark brown suagr
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1-2 cup of dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F. 
2. Melt semi-sweet chocolate and butter together in the microwave (30 second intervals) and stir until smooth. 
3. Mix applesauce, eggs, sugar, and vanilla together. 
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and baking soda together. Fold the dry mixture into the applesauce/eggs, followed by the chocolate/butter mixture. 
5. Grease a brownie pan (7x11 inches) and pour the batter in. 
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the brownies are set (an inserted fork comes out clean). 
7. After removing the brownies, immediately spread dark chocolate chips over the top. As the chocolate melts, spread it over the bars. 

Applesauce 

• 3 apples (peeled, cored, chopped)
• 1/2 cup of water
• 3 tbsp of white sugar
• 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon

1. Mix everything together in a saucepan over medium heat. 
2. Cover and cook for 20-30 minutes while mashing apples until desired consistency is reached.