Apple Brownies or Grandma's Easy Apple Cake

When I decided to make this recipe from Liz at “ThatSkinny Chick Can Bake” I envisioned a chewy-dense blondie brownie with bits of apples.  It took me by surprise when I cut into the brownies and discovered something completely different.  Instead of a brownie I ended up with an extremely moist apple spice cake.  Clearly this wasn’t what I was expecting, but it turned out to be a good thing.

They reminded me of a cake that my grandmother made for me when I was a child.  I have been looking for a recipe that tasted like my grandmothers apple cake for years and have never found one that has even come close.  I guess you could say that I wasn’t looking in the right place.  Who would have guessed that I had to search for an apple brownie recipe to satisfy my need?

These brownies have an old fashioned taste that is sooooooo comforting and it comes together quickly with just a few simple ingredients.

I followed the recipe exactly, yet my apple brownies looked nothing like Liz’s photos.  Mine were much taller and darker than hers.  I’m not sure what I did differently because this was a pretty straight forward recipe. 

There were a couple of things that took me by surprise,

throwing up questions on whether this recipe was going to work or not.

First of all there was very little batter and it was as thick as cookie dough.
I thought; “This doesn't look right”?     

Then I looked at the ball of batter and the 4 cups of chopped apples (I used honey crisp) 

and thought;

“There is no way that all these apples are going to mix into the batter”.

Well, I was wrong… it all worked out great! 

But I don’t think that I would call these brownies. Instead I will refer to them as“Grandma’s EASY Apple Cake”. 

We enjoyed these best while they were still hot, straight out of the oven with about a 30 minute cool down .  But it didn't end there...These crazy apple brownies surprised me again when I bit into one straight from the fridge the next day.  Yesterday they were Grandma's Easy Apple Cake.  After chillin out in the fridge, they became Grandma's "super moist" apple bread pudding, equally delicious, just in a different way.

APPLE BROWNIES or Grandma's EASY Apple Cake

1              stick                       butter (4 oz.)

½             cup                         sugar

½             cup                         brown sugar

1              large                      egg

1              cup                         flour

1              tsp.                        cinnamon

½             tsp.                        baking powder

½             tsp.                        baking soda

½             tsp.                        salt

2              large                      apples, peeled and chopped into small bite sized chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter an 8 X 8 baking dish and set aside.

Cream butter and sugars, then mix in the egg.  Add dry ingredient, then stir in apples.

Spread into the prepared pan and bake for about 45 – 50 minutes.

*mine baked up in 45 minutes.