Skinny Apple Brownies Recipe

Skinny Apple Brownies (AKA Apple Nut Bars)

Moist and chewy blonde brownies chock full of chopped apples and walnuts. If you’re like me and love apple desserts, I hope you give these simple apple brownies (AKA apple nut bars) a try.

I adapted this old-fashioned apple brownies recipe from one of my favorite old cookbooks, Cooking Down East by Marjorie Standish, who has been called the Julia Child of Maine.  Her book is a collection of recipes for the kind of simple home cooking I grew up eating and am more drawn to with each passing year.

I made only a couple of changes – using white wheat flour instead of all-purpose and decreasing the butter by half, which results in a slightly lighter healthier  apple brownie that, I believe, tastes as good as the original.

Although, the original recipe title is for “Apple Brownies,” since these days most of us automatically associate ‘brownies’ with chocolate, a more appropriate name might be “Apple Nut Bars.”  Call them what you like. (The earliest published ‘brownie recipes’ weren’t chocolate either, but that’s a whole other discussion.)

Enjoy!

Skinny Apple Brownies Recipe (AKA Apple Nut Bars)

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

1 hour

 

Moist and chewy apple and nut filled cookie bars

Recipe type: Dessert, Brownies

Serves: 16

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup all-purpose or white wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Position an oven rack in the center and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease an 8 x 8-inch square baking pan. (Or for easy cleanup, since these apple brownies are a bit sticky, line a pan with foil and grease the foil.)
3. Place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat it with an electric mixer on medium until creamy. Gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until creamy.
4. Stir in the chopped apples and nuts.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
6. Gently stir the flour mixture into the apple mixture. (The batter will be very thick.)
7. Spread the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.
8. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 40 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely.
10. Cut into 16 squares.

Notes

Nutritional Estimates Per Serving (1 brownie): 147 calories, 5.9 g fat, 22.2 g carbs,1.1 fiber, 2.5 g protein and 4 WW PointsPlus Value These bars a bit crumbly when they’re first baked. I think they are even better after a day or two.

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More Skinny Apple Brownie and Apple Dessert Recipes:

Fresh Apple Squares – a layer of apples baked between two layers of crumbly crust with 4 WW PointsPlus value from Eating Well

Delightfully Baked Apples – filled with oats, cinnamon & brown sugar from Gina at SkinnyTaste

Healthy Harvest Apple Cake – a homey rustic apple cake with just 6 WW PointsPlus from Simple Nourished Living

Healthy Low-Fat Baked Apples - filled with brown sugar and cinnamon with only 3 WW PointsPlus Value from Simple Nourished Living

Skinny Cranberry, Apple, Oatmeal Cookies – moist and chewy with just 2 WW PointsPlus from Simple Nourished Living