Caramel Apple Bars

So, one thing you may not know about me is that 3 years ago I went to Austria for 4 months. I lived with the perfect little Austrian family, and I studied with some of my fellow BYU students at the Austro-American Institute in Vienna. It was seriously the most lovely time I had (as a single).

The friends I made while in Vienna will last a life time. And one thing we try to do every few months to keep in touch is have a "reunion". Well, on Saturday we had a reunion at our program director's home. It was so lovely to see her and her family, and although there were only about 10 of us girls there, it was so great to reconnect.

The theme for the party was "apples" and since I needed to make something with apples and caramel for this challenge, I decided upon this bar recipe from Betty Crocker.

Now, you can make this dessert really easy by buying everything preprepared from the store, or you can make it a little more difficult by making things yourself. I wanted to go the more homemade route by making my own oatmeal cookie dough, and my own caramel sauce. But after creating a failure with the sauce (because I tried to make my own sweetened condensed milk - since I didn't have any) I washed it down the sink and ran back to the store to get some caramel icing topping. The recipe turned out great though, so I think either path you decide to choose, this is a good recipe to make.

Funny enough I don't really love having apples in my desserts. They just aren't my favorite fruit, and most the time I would rather eat a chocolate dessert than something fruity. But this dessert is really good. And next time I need something appley, this might just be my go to recipe.

1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 1/2 cup apple, peeled and chopped
1 cup caramel syrup
1/4 cup flour

about 20 oz oatmeal cookie mix

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray 13x9 inch baking pan with nonstick spray
3. In a large bowl combine cookie mix and butter using a fork or pastry blender.
4. Add egg to mixture and stir.
5. Press 2/3 of cookie mixture into the bottom of the pan.
6. Bake for 15 minutes.
7. Sprinkle apple pieces over cookie crust.
8. In a small bowl combine caramel syrup and flour.
9. Drizzle caramel over apples.
10.Sprinkle reserved cookie mixture over apples and spread over top.
11. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
12. Cool for 30 minutes or until completely cooled for 2 hours.

Enjoy.