Salted caramel and spiced apple cider mingle together in a golden and chewy brown sugar and walnut blondie. Tart apple slices drenched in salted caramel make the perfect topping for this September treat.
I’ts official. I’m a soccer mom. I knew this day was coming, but man I didn’t expect it to come so soon. Oliver has practice every Thursday night and a game every Saturday. My little CRV is doomed for piles of dirt and grass. Oh, how I loathe thee. It always looks like I was transporting livestock back there. Yeesh. If I haven’t cleaned after practices and games (especially after the rain) I sometimes just avoid turning and looking at the back seat. Thank God for rear view cameras. I haven’t fully transitioned into super mini van mom yet, but I’m super jealous of the new models with built in mini vacuums. That right there is genius.
So since Autumn has started I must confess that I have totally neglected apples. I dove right off the cliff into pumpkins. Glorious pumpkins. Like with these Pecan Pie Pumpkin Cupcakes. I’ts apple season and I completely overlooked it. So before we head into October I wanted to bake something with delicious, beautiful, sweet apples. A nutty and spiced blondie bar topped with tart baked apples was the perfect choice. Oh, and don’t forget the salted apple cider caramel drizzle. I call this baby, Salted Caramel Apple Cider Blondies.
After mixing the blondie dough I pressed it into the bottom of a greased dish and topped it with peeled and thinly sliced apple. I love how granny smith apples taste after being baked. They retain that nice tart flavor. I then drizzled the top with a caramel sauce made with apple cider and topped with sea salt. Don’t forget the sea salt peeps. I’ts amazing with caramel. Hence the “salted caramel” craze.
Bam. This is what comes out of the oven. Gooey, caramel apple deliciousness. Oh and the edges get this crispy crust that’s literally to die for. So good.
- Blondies
- 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
- 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp all spice
- 1 large granny smith apple peeled and sliced thinly
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Apple Cider Caramel
- 1/2 package of caramels
- 1/4 cup apple cider
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 9×9 baking dish and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice. Set aside.
- With the paddle attachment on your mixer, beat together softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla extract and blend well.
- On low, mix in dry ingredients. Lastly, fold in chopped walnuts.
- Press dough on the bottom of the baking dish.
- In a small bowl, toss apple slices with sugar and cinnamon.
- Layer on top of blondie dough.
- In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the caramels with the apple cider until smooth and shiny. Drizzle half of caramel over unbaked blondies.
- Bake 35-40 minutes.
- Let cool and drizzle with more caramel, and sprinkle with sea salt.
- Cut into squares and marvel at the yumminess you created.
More yummy fall desserts:
I just pinned this. How could I not? This looks amazing!
Thank you! 🙂
These were super yummy…I made only one small change…when melting the caramels I added a tablespoon of boiled cider…it totally elevated the flavor of the caramel! Thanks for a great recipe!
Thank you! That sounds fantastic! I’m going to try that the next time I make these 🙂