Sometimes, you crave a treat and can’t move past it. For me, I can usually ignore cravings and they go away – in fact, they’re rare nowadays – but persistent ones sometimes demand a response. In this case, I’ve been staying for two weeks with a family whose son makes apple pies every few days. In fact, I woke up to a fresh one in the oven two mornings ago. So while I’m not a big pie person, I love baked apples, and I started to obsess over a similar treat since I had a bag of almost untouched apples to use up.
After much debate, I settled on these apple pie bars with a shortbread crust. I love shortbread and our crust isn’t really my thing. I subbed arrowroot for tapioca and skipped coconut manna and used a touch of cane sugar instead of a 1/4 cup coconut sugar as I had none of the latter on hand.
My first sign something was amiss was the crust didn’t brown. I think I cooked it almost 3 times as long as it called for. So I accepted this was going to be a little unique. Frustrating as I made no crust substitutions!
Step two, the apples, was straightforward. I figured it’s hard to mess that up. 
Step three was a bit of an experiment. It seemed okay going in, but in practice, it didn’t brown. So after waiting longer I accepted defeat and put the bars in the fridge to harden. 
So how are they? They’re fun. I like them okay cold and hot. Would be nice with coconut whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. And they’re a nice treat as is too, a little crumbly but good.
Honestly, they’re not my favorite. I’m not sure if I will make them again. But they meet my craving very well.
For the record, they’re AIP – auto-immune protocol – so good for those needing egg-free, dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, vegan, etc.
What do you consider a baking “fail”? If it’s edible, are you still happy?
Practicing Persistence 